§ Mr. Rostasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how the households receiving fuel allowances are broken down in types of dwelling.
§ Mr. Newton:No information on the type of dwelling of households receiving supplementary benefit heating additions is available. Some information is available about the type of tenure of such households and I will write to the hon. Member when this has been analysed.
§ Mr. Rostasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the savings if the dwellings of the households currently receiving fuel allowances were to be insulated to the recommended standard.
§ Mr. Newton:I am not convinced that significant savings of benefit could necessarily be made in this way. Supplementary benefit heating allowances are awarded for a variety of reasons, some of which, for example poor health or age, are not related to the standard of insulation in the claimant's accommodation. If insulation standards were improved many claimants could be expected, quite properly, to take the benefits of insulation in increasing the warmth of their homes to a more acceptable level, rather than in reducing their fuel consumption, and it would not therefore necessarily be appropriate to reduce their rate of benefit.
§ Mr. Rostasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many individual households are receiving fuel allowances.
§ Mr. Newton:In December 1981 some 2.3 million claimants in receipt of supplementary benefit were in receipt of weekly additions to their benefit for heating.