§ Mr. Sillarsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is her estimate of the cost of a statutory heating allowance for retirement pensioners and disabled persons; and what consideration she is giving to the introduction of such an allowance.
§ Mr. Alec JonesWe have no plans to introduce such an allowance, the cost of which would depend on the level at which the allowance was fixed, but there are about 8.1 million retirement pensioners 225W and just over 1 million disabled adults, some of whom are also pensioners. Discretionary allowances for extra heating are payable to an estimated 650,000 recipients of supplementary benefit, at one of three rates depending on health and/or accommodation conditions; the cost of these allowances is about £18 million a year.