§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the cost of increasing the amount of maintenance disregarded for family credit, disability working allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit purposes to(a) £20 and (b) £25 per week. [50887]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe information is set out in the table.
Benefit cost of increasing the maintenance disregard £m per annum Benefit £20 disregard £25 disregard Family Credit 15 35 Housing Benefit 5 5 Council Tax Benefit * 5 Disability Working Allowance * * Total 25 45 Notes:
1. Modelled on the benefit rules and benefit rates as in November 1998
2. Modelled using data taken from the 1996–97 Family Resources Survey and November 1997 Family Credit 5 per cent. sample, uprated to 1998–99 prices, benefits and earnings levels
3. Figures have been rounded to the nearest £5 million and may not sum to the total because of rounding.* denotes a cost of less than £2.5 million
4. Assumes that the recorded maintenance payments on the Family Credit datasets are paid at the same level each week
5. Excludes the financial impact of behavioural changes caused by the new disregard levels