§ Mr. GowTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many district and borough councils operate a disregard in excess of £5 a week for war pensioners when calculating entitlement to housing benefit; and what rate of weekly disregard is applied by each of those councils.
58W
§ Mr. Peter LloydLocal schemes for disregarding war pensions in excess of the statutory £5 are entirely at the discretion of individual authorities.
The following authorities operate such schemes, but I regret that information on the extent to which individual schemes enhance the statutory disregard is not available.
Local authorities operating a local scheme
- Aberdeen
- Adur
- Amber Valley
- Angus
- Annandale and Eskdale
- Argyll-Bute
- Ashfield
- Aylesbury Vale
- Badenoch
- Banff and Buchan
- Barking
- Barnet
- Basingstoke
- Bearsden and Milngavie
- Berwickshire
59 - Bexley
- Birmingham
- Blaby
- Blackburn
- Blackpool
- Borders
- Boston
- Bournemouth
- Bracknell
- Bradford
- Braintree
- Breckland
- Brent
- Brentwood
- Brighton
- Bromley
- Broxbourne
- Broxtowe
- Burnley
- Bury
- Caithness
- Calderdale
- Cambridge
- Camden
- Canterbury
- Cardiff
- Carlisle
- Castle Point
- Central
- Ceredigion
- Charnwood
- Chelmsford
- Cheltenham
- Chester
- Chesterfield
- Chiltern
- Chorley
- Christchurch
- Clackmannan
- Clydebank
- Clydesdale
- Congleton
- Corby
- Coventry
- Craven
- Crawley
- Crawley New Town
- Crewe and Nantwich
- Cumbernauld
- Cumbernauld Development Corporation
- Cumnock and Doon
- Cunninghame
- Dacorum
- Darlington
- Dartford
- Daventry
- Delyn
- Derby
- Doncaster
- Dover
- Dudley
- Dumbarton
- Dundee
- Dunfermline
- Durham
- Dwyfor
- Ealing
- East Cambridgeshire
- East Devon
- East Hampshire
- East Hertfordshire
- East Kilbride
- East Kilbride Development Corporation
- East Lothian
- East Staffordshire
- Eastleigh
- Eastwood
- Edinburgh
- Ellesmere Port
- Elmbridge
60 - Enfield
- Epsom and Ewell
- Ettrick and Lauderdale
- Exeter
- Falkirk
- Fareham
- Fenland
- Fife
- Forest of Dean
- Gedling
- Glanford
- Glasgow
- Glenrothes
- Gloucester
- Gordon
- Gosport
- Great Yarmouth
- Guildford
- Hackney
- Hambleton
- Hamilton
- Hammersmith
- Harborough
- Haringey
- Harlow
- Harrow
- Hart
- Hartlepool
- Havant
- Havering
- Hereford
- Hertsmere
- High Peak
- Highlandv
- Hillingdon
- Hinckley and Bosworth
- Horsham
- Hounslow
- Huntingdon
- Inverclyde
- Islington
- Kennet
- Kilmarnock
- Kingston-upon-Thames
- Kingswood
- Kirkcaldy
- Kirklees
- Knowsley
- Kyle and Carrick
- Lambeth
- Lancaster
- Langbaurgh
- Leeds
- Leicester
- Lewes
- Lewisham
- Lincoln
- Livingston
- Lliw Valley
- Lochaber
- Lothian
- Luton
- Macclesfield
- Maidstone
- Maldon
- Medina
- Meirionnydd
- Mendip
- Merton
- Mid Bedfordshire
- Middlesbrough
- Midlothian
- Milton Keynes
- Mole Valley
- Monklands
- Montgomery
- Moray
- Motherwell
- Nairn
- Neath
61 - New Forest
- Newark
- Newbury
- Newhamv
- Newport
- Nithsdale
- North Bedfordshire
- North Cornwall
- North Dorset
- North East Fife
- North Hertfordshire
- North Kesteven
- North Shropshire
- North Tyneside
- North West Leicester
- North Wiltshire
- Northampton
- Nottingham
- Oadby and Wigston
- Ogwr
- Oldham
- Orkney
- Penwith
- Perth and Kinross
- Peterborough
- Peterborough Development Corporation
- Plymouth
- Poole
- Port Talbot
- Portsmouth
- Radnor
- Redditch
- Reigate and Banstead
- Renfrew
- Rhondda
- Rhuddlan
- Ribble Valley
- Richmond-upon-Thames
- Richmondshire
- Ross and Cromarty
- Rossendale
- Rother
- Roxburgh
- Rugby
- Runnymede
- Rushcliffe
- Ryedale
- Salford
- Sandwell
- Scarborough
- Scottish Special Housing Association
- Sedgefield
- Sefton
- Selby
- Shepway
- Shetland
- Skye and Lochalsh
- Slough
- Solihull
- South Bedfordshire
- South Buckinghamshire
- South Cambridgeshire
- South Holland
- South Lakeland
- South Norfolk
- South Northampton
- South Ribble
- South Staffordshire
- South Tyneside
- South Wight
- Southampton
- Southend on Sea
- Southwark
- Spelthorne
- St. Helens
- Staffordshire Moorlands
- Stevenage
- Stewartry
- Stirling
- Stockton on Tees
62 - Stratford-on-Avon
- Strathclyde
- Strathkelvin
- Stroud
- Surrey Heath
- Sutherland
- Sutton
- Swale
- Swansea
- Tameside
- Tandridge
- Tayside
- Tendring
- Test Valley
- Tewkesbury
- Three Rivers
- Thurrock
- Tonbridge and Mailing
- Tower Hamlets
- Tunbridge Wells
- Tweeddale
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Vale of White Horse
- Vale Royal
- Wakefield
- Walsall
- Waltham Forest
- Wandsworth
- Watford
- Waverley
- Wealdon
- Welwyn Hatfield
- West Derbyshire
- West Lothian
- West Norfolk
- West Somerset
- West Wiltshire
- Western Isles
- Westminster
- Weymouth and Portland
- Wigan
- Wigtown
- Wimborne
- Winchesterv
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- Wirral
- Woking
- Wokingham
- Wolverhampton
- Woodspring
- Worthing
- Wycombe
- York
Total: 308
SourceBased on 1988 returns provided by 474 of the 483 local authorities in Great Britain.
§ Mr. NellistTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether those in receipt of a war pension which prior to the April 1988 social security changes was disregarded in the calculation of housing benefit(a) were, and (b) are entitled to transitional protection; what rights of appeal are open to those pensioners so affected; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe housing benefit transitional payments scheme is intended to provide help to vulnerable groups of claimants who experienced reductions in their housing benefit as a result of changes introduced by the Government in April 1988. Those in receipt of a war pension are eligible to receive help in the same way as all other applicants except that transitional payments do not cover losses of housing benefit incurred as a result of a local authority limiting the scope of its discretionary scheme in April 1988.
The statutory disregard on war pensions in the housing benefit scheme was increased at the time of the April 63W reforms from £4 to £5 a week and also local authorities retained the right to provide additional help for war pension recipients should they wish to do so. War pension recipients are able to request reviews of their awards of transitional protection by a more senior officer in the same way as all other applicants.