§ 1. Mr. BrazierTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the projected rate of growth of the social security budget over the next three years; and what will be the proportion of gross domestic product spent on social security. [14350]
§ The Secretary of State for Social Security (Mr. Peter Lilley)Social security spending is expected to increase by a little more than 1 per cent. a year in real terms. That is less than half the rate at which gross domestic product is expected to grow, so there is every prospect of social security taking a declining share of GDP in future.
§ Mr. BrazierDoes my right hon. Friend agree that we have managed to achieve that in the face of considerable pressures because we have taken sensible and practical steps to contain both expenditure and overheads, unlike Labour Ministers who talk about thinking the unthinkable and would open up again the benefit system to asylum appellants who have been refused asylum?
§ Mr. LilleyMy hon. Friend is right that the success in containing the prospective growth in social security is the result of the reforms that we have introduced over the past three years, almost every one of which has been opposed by the Opposition, including the latest sensible changes to stop abuse of the welfare system by bogus asylum claimants. The Opposition have opposed every change that we have made. When they talk about thinking the unthinkable, they are thinking about spending yet more public money. Every proposal that they put forward is an increased expenditure plan.
§ Ms HodgeDoes the Secretary of State agree that an important part of the social security budget is the cold weather payments system? Will he explain how it can possibly be fair to my constituents in Barking that the eligibility for cold weather payments of those who live on one side of Lodge avenue is measured against the temperature at Heathrow, but the eligibility of those who live on the other side is measured against the temperature at Stansted? Is it fair that one group of tenants should have received cold weather payments four times this year while tenants on the other side of the road have had them only once?
§ Mr. LilleyThere are always difficulties wherever borderlines are drawn. That is true of cold weather payments and of the education system. Many Labour spokesmen find it difficult when the good schools are on one side of the borderline and they live on the other.