"Assistance with Housing Costs" (Hansard, 2 December 1981)

§ Mr. Rossi

I gave this information in reply to my hon. Friend, the Member for Hornchurch (Mr. Squire) on 25 November—[Vol. 13, c.416–418.]—but one table appeared out of order. The information in the correct order is below.

Revised estimates of the information provided in annexes A, C and D of the consultative document "Assistance with Housing Costs"—DOE: March 1981—have now been made. These have been prepared on a mid-1981 basis, and are as follows:

Annex A
The numbers of Households affected by the proposals
Table 1 The present situation
Type of benefit	Estimated No. of households in mid-1981 million	Average benefit pw in 1981–82 £	Estimated cost in 1981–82 million
Supplementary benefit (Housing addition)	2.7	11.90	c1,800
Rent rebate (Local authority tenants)	1.6	6.89	570

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Type of benefit	Estimated No. of households in mid-1981 million	Average benefit pw in 1981–82 £	Estimated cost in 1981–82 million
Rent allowance (Private tenants)	0.2	4.74	60
Rate rebate (all tenures)	3.5	1.86	338

Note: numbers of households are not cumulative as most recipients of rent rebates also claim rate rebates.

Table 2 the effects of the proposed change on existing recipients (Numbers are estimates based on the situation in mid-1981)
A. Rebate recipients	million
Local authority tenants (Rent and rates)	^*1.7
Private tenants (Rent and rates)	^*0.3
Owner occupiers (Rates only)	^*1.5
^* Claiming and payment systems unchanged. Entitlements affected by changes in tapers.

B. Estimated position in respect of SB recipients with income below Scale Rate plus
Additional Requirements plus Non-Rebatable Housing Costs
i. Without non-dependants—entitled to 100 per cent assistance with housing costs
	million
Local authority tenants (Rent and rates)	^*1.20
Owner occupiers (Rates only)	^*0.40
Private tenants (Rent and rates)	^*0.39
^* DHSS certifies 100 per cent. housing benefit entitlement to local authorities. Authorities issue demands rebated for the period certified, or cash, as appropriate.

ii. With non-dependants—entitlement to 100 per cent. assistance less non-dependant deductions
	million
Local authority tenants (rent and rates)	0.25^*
Owner occupiers (rates only)	0.07^*
Private tenants (rent and rates)	0.04^*
^* As above except that local authorities issue rent/rate demands to cover non-dependant deductions or reduce cash benefit, as appropriate.

C. Owner occupiers	million
Mortgage interest only—for rates see B above	0.14^*
^* Means testing, eligibility assessment and payment continues to be by DHSS.

For all the above households the DHSS checking of rent/rates is eliminated as is DHSS payment of individual cash amounts. Local authority collection of rent and/or rates from the households without non-dependants is also eliminated.

D. SB recipients with income equal to or greater than Scale Rate plus Additional Requirements plus Non-Rebatable Housing Costs

Claimants who switch to HB calculated according to income—

	Those no worse off as a result of the change	Those entitled to DHSS topping up payments
Local authority tenants	36,000	106,000
Private tenants	30,000	25,000
Owner occupiers	6,000	8,000

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ANNEX C
Distributional Effects of Proposed Reform on Recipients of Rebate Estimated numbers of households at mid-1981 ('000s) (GB)
	LA tenants	Private tenants	Owner Occupiers	Total
Losers
Weekly amounts (£)
0.01–0.25	220	90	620	920
0.26–0.50	240	50	270	550
0.51–0.75‡	580	50	60	690
Total	1040	190	940	2170
Gainers
Weekly amounts (£)
0.01–0.50	100	30	200	320
0.51–1.00	90	40	110	230
1.01–1.50	70	20	†	90
1.51–2.00	60	20	^*	80
2.00‡	130	10	^*	140
Total	450	110	310	870
Breakers-even
Total	240	50	240	530

Notes

^* indicates no households

† indicates that the sample is too small to allow a reasonable estimate sub-totals may not add to totals because of rounding

‡ theoretical losses if the Government's decision to limit rebate losses generally to 75p had not been made:

0.51–0.75	180	20	50	240
0.76–1.00	150	10	10	170
1.01–1.50	190	10	†	210
l.51†	70	†	†	70

ANNEX D
Distributional Effects of the Proposed Reform of Supplementary Benefit Recipients
Estimated number of recipients in mid 1981 (000's) (GB)
Weekly gain or topping up payment (£)	Topping up cases	Gainers
0.01–0.99	37	37
1.00–1.99	46	17
2.00–2.99	35	8
3.00 and over	22	11
Total	139	73