§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will publish his Department instructions issued to the transitional protection unit and place a copy in the Library;
(2) whether the instructions issued by his Department to the transitional protection unit includes a restriction on the amount of housing benefit transitional protection which can be paid because a local authority is rate-capped; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter Lloyd[holding answer 19 June 1989]: The 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. Because the method of calculating transitional payments involves a comparison between housing benefit in payment before and after 4 April 1988, some applicants who lived in an area whose local authority was rate-capped and which reduced its domestic rates and who were therefore entitled to a lesser amount of housing benefit may well have received a transitional payment for this reason and 475W not because of the Government's changes to the housing benefit scheme. The procedural instructions to the transitional payments unit (TPU) do not provide for a different assessment in these cases, but some cases (less than 100) were incorrectly assessed and transitional payment was reduced on account of rate capping. If the hon. Member is aware of any such cases and will supply the Department with details, the transitional payment will be reassessed and arrears paid.
In view of the proximity of the closing date for applications (30 June) and the transitory nature of the scheme there are no current plans to publish the TPU instruction manual.