§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when transitional payments will cease; and what will take their place.
§ Mr. Peter LloydWe have already announced that housing benefit transitional payments will be reduced by £2 a week from 10 April 1989, the date of the uprating of Social Security benefits. For those in receipt of £2 a week or less, the payments will terminate on that date. Some payments will have ceased during the year because of a change in the applicant's circumstances. Housing benefit transitional payments were introduced to help vulnerable groups at the changeover to the new scheme in April 1988. This help was intended to be only transitional and it was made clear at the outset that transitional payments would be withdrawn in due course, for example, as other benefits increased.