§ Sir Brandon Rhys WilliamsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate how many recipients of(a) housing benefit, and (b) family income supplement receive more from these benefits than they are charged in income tax, national insurance contribution and local authority rates.
§ Mr. ScottApproximately 1,900,000 standard housing benefit recipients, 80,000 people receiving both housing benefit and family income supplement and 30,000 recipients of family income supplement in Great Britain received more from these benefits in 1985 than they paid in income tax, national insurance contributions and local authority rates. Since these estimates assume that all tax payments and benefit receipts reported in the family expenditure survey are correct, the figures provide no more than broad orders of magnitude.
§ Mrs. BeckettTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services whether the transitional protection of supplementary benefit payments on the introduction of income support will include payments under regulation 22 of the urgent cases regulations.
§ Mr. ScottYes, provided the claimant satisfies the conditions of entitlement for income support and total benefit income under income support is less than that under the supplementary benefit scheme.