§ Mr. SquireTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will update the reply he gave to the then hon. Member for Kensington, of 4 February,Official Report, columns 737–42, on spending power.
§ Mr. ScottNo. There was no prescribed procedure for uprating supplementary benefit, housing benefit or FIS —different elements of these schemes were uprated in different ways and by different indices at different times. It is, therefore, impossible to say what the rates of these benefits would have been in April 1989 if the reforms had not been introduced. A simple mechanistic uprating in line with the retail price indices would be unrealistic. The tax benefit model tables for April 1988 will be published shortly.