§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list in full the discretionary benefits which can be made by local offices of his Department; and what directions are followed by local offices in the exercising of such discretion.
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§ Mr. Deakins:The Supplementary Benefits Commission has a discretionary power under paragraph 4(1)(b) of Schedule 2 to the Supplementary Benefit Act 1966 to increase the benefit otherwise payable to take account of exceptional circumstances. By the nature of this discretionary power there can be no exhaustive list of the special expenses for which allowance is made, but the most frequent are those arising from a need for extra heating, a special diet, domestic assistance, extra expenditure on laundry or on hire purchase for essential goods.
The Commission also have a discretionary power, under section 7 of the Supplementary Benefits Act, to award a single payment of benefit to meet an exceptional need. Some 830,000 such payments were made in 1974, covering a wide variety of needs, including awards for clothing and footwear, bedding, household goods, travel and removal expenses, fuel bills and funeral expenses. The commission has published detailed accounts of the ways in which its discretionary powers are exercised, in the Supplementary Benefits Handbook and in its Administration Paper No. 4 entitled "Exceptional Needs Payments".