Child Benefit (Hansard, 6 July 1989)

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd

[holding answer 9 June 1989]: I regret that the precise information requested cannot be provided. Housing benefit currently comprises four distinct elements —rent rebates, rent allowances (all of Great Britain), rate rebates (in England and Wales) and community charge rebate (in Scotland).

The estimated costs in 1989–90 of ceasing to treat child benefit and one-parent benefit as a resource for housing benefit would be as follows:

	£ million
(i) Rent rebate and rent allowance:
(a) Child benefit	80
(b) One parent benefit	7
(ii) Projected cost assuming rate rebates were fully in place throughout Great Britain:
(a) Child benefit	40
(b) One parent benefit	3
(iii) Project cost assuming community charge rebates were fully in place throughout GB:

250W

	£ million
(a) Child benefit	60
(b) One parent benefit	2

Notes

1. Where a person with at least one child in his family and working 24 hours or more a week claims housing benefit and has not also claimed family credit, calculation of potential family credit is included in the assessment of housing benefit. (The notional amount so arrived at is not counted as part of the housing benefit income for 25 working days following the despatch of the notice of housing benefit entitlement to the claimant to allow reasonable time for him to claim family credit.) Differential take-up of family credit would not, therefore, affect the estimated costs set out above.

2. Some lone parents, such as widows and those on invalidity benefit or retirement pension, do not get one-parent benefit. They would, therefore, be excluded from the increase in housing benefit that other lone parents would get from the disregard of one-parent benefit.