HL Deb 17 November 1982 vol 436 cc622-3

9.40 p.m.

Lord Trefgarne rose to move, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 21st October be approved.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, I rise to move the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper, and I confess that I do that as a pale substitute—a pale and inadequate substitute—for my noble friend Lord Lyell, who had proposed to move these regulations but unhappily is detained in Switzerland at a football match.

Your Lordships will recall that housing benefit brings together the two current schemes of help with housing costs—local authority rent and rate rebate and rent allowance schemes and supplementary benefit. The regulations providing for the implementation of housing benefit and the necessary amendments to the supplementary benefit scheme in relation to housing costs were considered by your Lordships last July. I referred then to the difficulties inherent in amending regulations which remove or alter existing provisions. These regulations are a good example of this, as their sole purpose is to rectify a technical defect in the previous set of amendments to the Supplementary Benefit Requirements Regulations. I must apologise to your Lordships for taking up your time once again on this matter and I shall keep my explanation as brief as possible.

The introduction of housing benefit caused us to review the way in which assistance was given through supplementary benefit to people who pay a specified charge to their landlord for full heating or other amenity charges. Currently such a person receives an addition to his supplementary benefit of the excess over a specified amount—currently £5.10 a week—for heating. If the person is entitled to a heating addition because of disablement or age, he receives the appropriate addition if it is higher than his excess charge. The main point is that the claimant receives help by way of supplementary benefit of at least the excess over the standard amount. The change to housing benefit provided an opportunity to simplify these arrangements. Supplementary benefit recipients will have their rent rebated in full. We therefore made provision in the Housing Benefit Regulations for charges in excess of the standard amount to be included in the rebate where the rent included full heating or other amenity charges. The effect is that the claimant has his heating costs in excess of the standard amount met in full. The change is procedural. Instead of the tenant receiving help by way of additions to his supplementary benefit, the local authority rebates the excess and claims from the department.

We believed that we had achieved this change in the previous set of regulations but it transpires that there is a technical defect, the result of which will be that claimants covered by the new housing benefit arrangement will also continue to be eligible for assistance through supplementary benefit. It would clearly be wrong to allow such double provision of public funds to occur and the draft regulations are designed to prevent this happening. I beg to move.

Moved, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 21st October be approved.—(Lord Trefgarne.)

Baroness Jeger

My Lords, this is a question of tidying up and of consequential amendments. Therefore, I will only delay your Lordships to say that, having discussed the principles of this matter at earlier stages, we accept and acknowledge that this tidying-up process is essential. We hope that sympathetic consideration will be given to all these heating problems and that the technical changes in the regulations will go through as speedily as possible and will be helpful to all concerned.

On Question, Motion agreed to.

House adjourned at fifteen minutes before ten o'clock.