HL Deb 16 March 1981 vol 418 cc513-4

2.42 p.m.

Baroness Vickers

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether it is economic that many persons have been spending their redundancy money in order to bring their capital below the £2,000 limit for eligibility for social security.

Minister of State, Department of Education and Science (Baroness Young)

My Lords, how a person spends his money must be a matter of individual choice We have no evidence to support the view that people are deliberately spending their redundancy payments in order to qualify for supplementary benefit in the way my noble friend suggests, although many redundant workers no doubt take the opportunity which a redundancy award represents to purchase or replace consumer items. That is their right, if they so wish. In any event, most redundant workers will in fact be entitled to unemployment benefit and would not normally be entitled to supplementary benefit for the first six months or so. Where it is established that a person has deliberately disposed of assets for the purpose of getting supplementary benefit, there are provisions for the value of those assets to continue to be taken into account.

Baroness Vickers

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply. Has her attention been drawn to the fact that many people are spending this money rather freely? I entirely agree with her that it is for them to decide, but what advice are they given, either by industry when they leave the industry concerned or by her department, as to what can be done so that the money is not spent totally unnecessarily, simply in order to bring it down to £2,000?

Baroness Young

My Lords, as I indicated last week in answer to a similar supplementary question on the Question of the noble Lord, Lord Monson, how people spend their capital is a matter for them. But if they want to claim supplementary benefit, they need to take account of the two provisions in the resource regulations, the interpretation of which is a matter for the independent adjudicating authorities. The Department of Health and Social Security does not give advice on what to do with redundancy money, and I would have to write to my noble friend Lady Vickers on the question of what, in fact, individual firms might do.