§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish tables on spending power using the assumptions in the answer to the hon. Member for Bradford, West (Mr. Madden) on 22 June 1988,Official Report, columns 571–76, but using expenditure and benefit figures appropriate for families in (a) Doncaster and (b) Wath-on-Dearne together with a column showing the extent of the differences resulting from the changes in April and October 1989.
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§ Mrs. Gillian ShephardThere were no prescribed procedures for uprating supplementary benefit, housing benefit or family income supplement—different elements of these schemes were uprated in different ways and by different indices at different times. It is impossible to say what the rates of these benefits would have been in April 1989 it' the reform of social security had not been introduced in April 1988. A simple mechanistic uprating of the April 1987 system of benefits would be unrealistic. The tax benefit model tables for 1989 will be published shortly.