§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is her estimate of the number of persons in receipt of retirement pensions who have suffered a disbenefit by claiming supplementary benefit instead of rate rebates or rent allowances;
(2) what is her estimate of the total number of persons receiving widowed mother's allowances who have suffered a 301W disbenefit by claiming supplementary benefit in place of a rate rebate or a rent allowance.
§ Mr. Alec JonesI regret that information on which to base a reliable estimate is not available.
§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many supplementary beneficiaries have been identified as persons who would be better off by claiming rent allowances or rate rebates;
(2) how many supplementary benefit claimants have been transferred to local authority rent allowance or rate rebates since 30th September.
§ Mr. Alec JonesThe best estimate available is that in August 1974 there were approximately 300,000 supplementary benefit recipients who would have been better off financially with rent rebates or allowances and, when appropriate, rate rebates. The majority of such recipients were people over retirement pension age and the amount of financial advantage would have been very small in some cases.
A large-scale operation, involving local social security offices and the housing and rating departments of local authorities, is now in progress to advise people who might have more than a marginal or transient advantage in transferring to housing benefits, and who wish to do so, that they could be better off with those benefits. The rate of progress of this exercise, which takes effect from 30th September, depends upon the availability of resources and the other operational commitments of local social security offices and local authorities; in some places it is likely to take as much as six months. No information is yet available about the number of people who have decided to give up supplementary benefit.