HC Deb 30 June 1988 vol 136 cc338-40W
Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people are expected to benefit from the change in the upper capital limit for housing benefit from £6,000 to £8,000 and what estimate he has made of the number of gainers from raising the lower limit of £3,000 to £5,000.

Mr. Portillo

We expect that about 100,000 people will be brought back within the scope of housing benefit as a result of increasing the capital limit to £8,000. A further 50,000 would be brought back in if the lower limit were to be raised from £3,000 to £5,000, and all those on housing benefit with savings of over £3,000 would see some gain in their entitlement.

Mr. Winnick

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if, pursuant to the answer given to the hon. Member for Walsall, North on 27 June over the publicising of the transitional arrangements relating to loss of housing benefit, it is intended to use television and the provincial press.

Mr. Portillo

No.

Mr. Winnick

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate the cost of raising the starting point for reducing housing benefit to £5,000 capital; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Portillo

[holding answer 3 May 1988]: The estimated cost of increasing the starting point in housing benefit from £3,000 to £5,000 is £50 million at 1988–89 prices.

Mr. Winnick

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the number of claimants who have lost housing benefit arising from the new social security regulations and who will not benefit from the transitional arrangements.

Mr. Portillo

[holding answer 3 May 1988]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply that T gave him on 16 June, at column 286. A precise estimate of the numbers who were receiving housing benefit prior to April but are not covered by the transitional payment scheme is not available. The tables previously published remain the best guide to the overall structural effect of the reforms.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services whether housing benefit recipients who were able to take advantage of the higher level of benefit under the former higher rent scheme and who have now lost more than £2.50 per week on the new levels of housing benefit will be eligible for transitional protection.

Mr. Portillo

[holding answer 14 June 1988]: Yes, provided they are in one of the categories eligible to receive transitional payments. These are listed on page 2 of leaflet "RR4 Housing Benefit—New Rules", a copy of which has been placed in the Library.

Mr. Blair

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how many claims have been made to his Department for housing benefit support transitional protection.

Mr. Portillo

[holding answer 23 June 1988]: To date, 45,788.

Mr. Spearing

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how many copies of form RR4 have been(a) printed, and (b) distributed to (i) post offices, (ii) offices of his Department and (iii) volunteer advice agencies; what information he has as to their current availability to the public; and what is his estimate of the numbers of applicants who will return completed forms.

Mr. Portillo

A total of 8.5 million copies of leaflet "RR4 Housing Benefit—New Rules" have been printed.

Of these, 2 million copies were sent to a Post Office warehouse. Copies were distributed from there to all post offices, and have been on display in main post offices since Monday 13 June.

Each local social security office was sent 500 copies of RR4 in the first week of June. Stocks have also been sent to other DHSS offices such as regional offices, mobile publicity offices, staff training centres, and the transitional payments unit in Glasgow. Stocks can be reordered from a central depot.

A copy of RR4 has been sent to each of the 16,000 addresses on a voluntary sector mailing list. Three thousand copies were originally sent to the National Association of CAB for distribution to its branches. In addition, 20 copies were sent to each citizens advice bureau office from this Department on 20 June.

One thousand copies of RR4 were also sent to each local authority. By 29 June they had ordered over 800,000 further copies for local use.

It is not possible to estimate how many applicants will eventually return a form but 45,788 completed applications on RR4s have already been received by the Glasgow Unit.