§ 26. Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what representations he has had regarding the effect of the £2,000 ceiling of capital on supplementary benefit claimants and on the inclusion of the surrender value of insurance policies in the calculation of this ceiling.
§ Mrs. Chalker:My right hon. Friend has received a number of representations about the £2,000 capital rule from people who have been directly affected by the change, from those representing them, from other interested organisations and from hon. Members. They have mainly been concerned with the level of the disregard and its sharper impact as compared with that of the 97W previous sliding scale. A small number of the representations related to the treatment of insurance policies, and these included representations from the Life Offices Association and the Industrial Life Offices Association. We were able to reassure these organisations that very few people were likely to be affected; subsequent experience has shown this to be the case.