§ Mr. Allen McKayTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps are being taken to rectify the anomaly as between persons with multiple benefits payable from one payment book receiving one payment and those with separate books for different benefits receiving one payment for each benefit, under the scheme intended to correct the effect of the error in the retail price index.
§ Mr. ScottWe do not propose to alter the arrangements for the special payments exercise, which is designed to combine as far as possible fairness with speed of payment. Having benefits combined on one order book does not 115W automatically mean that the claimant has suffered more than once from the error in the RPI. The ex-gratia special payments fully compensate the great majority of people who have combined books: less than 10 per cent. of them will be under-compensated for the RPI error because of the method of payment.
§ Mr. RookerTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how many representations he has received regarding the offer of only one special payment to cover more than one social security benefit, following the error in the retail price index.