§ Mr. Pendryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) in his press release of 16 December 1982, 195W entitled "Housing Benefit"—No. 82/383—in each of the paragraphs, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 how many of those claimants mentioned are heads of (a) one-parent families and (b) two-parent families;
(2) under the unified housing benefit scheme starting in April 1983, what is his latest estimate of the number of (a) one-parent families, and (b) two-parent families who will be (i) better off, (ii) worse off and (iii) neither better nor worse off than under previous rebate and allowance schemes; and in (i) and (ii), if he will give an indication of the numbers in bands of 10 pence or as near as possible.
§ Mr. Newton[pursuant to his reply, 27 January 1983, c. 517]: Estimates of the numbers of one and two-parent families in the groups mentioned in paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of the press release are as follows:
Thousands One-parent families Two-parent families Paragraph 1 Supplementary benefit claimants on housing benefit 380 460 Existing rebate/allowance households on housing benefit 195 520 Paragraph 2 Existing rebate/allowance recipients affected by changes in tapers pensioner gainers — 5 losers (including those no longer entitled) 85 520 breakers even 115 120
1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 Hereford and Worcester 492.4 514.5 565.3 543.4 584.5 † Salop 224.0 230.0 242.1 239.9 242.0 252.6 Staffordshire 888.0 920.0 873.0 958.0 * † Warwickshire 443.0 512.0 498.0 505.0 506.0 † Birmingham 930.0 979.0 * 1533.5 1535.4 † Coventry 373.2 372.5 402.2 397.7 383.0 † Dudley 138.6 190.0 218.0 229.0 250.0 † Sandwell 256.0 282.8 297.0 316.5 303.0 305.0 Solihull 105.7 107.5 111.0 121.0 119.9 124.9 Walsall 171.0 169.0 * * 202.0 † Wolverhampton 209.6 230.0 * * * 271.0 West Midlands Region 4231.5 4507.3 4584.6‡ 5243.0‡ 5313.8‡ † Rate per 1000 population aged 65 or over—West Midlands 6.4 6.7 6.7‡ 7.5‡ 7.5‡ † Rate per 1000 population aged 65 or over—Wolverhampton 6.1 6.6 — — — 7.5 * Information not returned † Information not yet returned ‡Estimated figure which includes latest figure returned where an authority did not return for the year in question.