§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether she will make arrangements for automatic increases in benefits to take account of increases in energy prices, including electricity and gas tariffs and smokeless fuels.
§ Mr. Meacher,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 27th January 1976; Vol. 904, c. 175], circulated the following information:
It is the Government's general policy to maintain the value of social security benefits in relation to prices as a whole rather than the cost of individual items of expenditure. Accordingly, benefits are raised as frequently as necessary and at least in line with the movement of the General Index of Retail Prices. Over the period from October 1973, when benefits were last increased by our predecessors, up to December 1975, pensions and other long-term benefits have gone up by 70 per cent. whereas the retail price index as a whole has risen by 51 per cent. and the fuel component in that index by 68 per cent.
In addition to these general provisions for benefit increases many of the poorest pensioners qualify for help with their fuel costs through the extra heating additions payable under the supplementary benefit scheme. These additions were raised last November by an amount which took account both of movements in the fuel element in the retail prices index up to then and of future fuel price rises which had been announced at the time when the new rates were fixed.