§ Mr. Goldingasked the Secretary of State for Social Services which councils charge rents which the Supplementary Benefits Commission categorises as unreasonable; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Sir K. JosephNo central record is kept of recipients of supplementary benefit whose rent is not met in full, and I do not think that the extra work involved in making a record of all local authorities concerned would be justified.
§ Mr. Benyonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether the Supplementary Benefits Commission is yet able to agree to meet the rents of local authority tenants in full, where it does not already do so.
§ Sir K. JosephAgreement has now been reached with the local authority association, the effect of which is that local authority tenants receiving supplementary benefit will now have their rents met in full.
Under the new agreement, the Supplementary Benefits Commission will meet either the standard rent charged by the local authority or the cost rent of the dwelling less the subsidy payable under the Housing Subsidies Act, 1967 (or in certain cases the Housing Act, 1969), whichever is the smaller. In the second case the local authority will reduce the rent payable by the tenant to the amount of the cost rent less the subsidy. In either case the council tenant on supplementary benefit will have his rent completely covered, the only exceptions being tenants in higher income dwellings built by local authorities for renting by 40W professional and similar people and persons who are overhoused in relation to their needs. Arrears of benefit will be paid in appropriate cases to those recipients whose benefits have been restricted, with arrears from the date of restriction.
Rent allowances in the cases concerned will be re-assessed as soon as the pressure in local offices permits. Most of the local authorities involved are not meanwhile pressing tenants receiving supplementary benefit to pay more rent than the Commission is allowing and I hope that all local authorities will agree to act in this way so that hardship to tenants can be avoided.
Under another part of the agreement, those local authorities which operate a rent rebate scheme and do not make a large rate fund contribution are to pay to my Department a sum, calculated on an agreed formula, in respect of every tenant receiving supplementary benefit. This part of the agreement is designed to ensure that where the tenant looks to the Commission and not to his authority for help in connection with the rent, some of the Exchequer housing subsidy for rent rebates is passed back to the taxpayer.