HC Deb 28 April 1980 vol 983 cc405-6W
Mrs. Renee Short

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will set out an amended version of the table given in response to the question by the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, North-East, Official Report, 10 December 1979, column 482–4, snowing the categories of gainers and losers under the Social Security Bill and taking account of the fact that short-term supplementary benefit rates have not been raised to equalise them with the level to which national insurance benefits would normally have been raised.

Mrs. Chalker

As my right hon. Friend explained in his reply to the hon. Member on 10 December—[Vol. 975, c. 482–4]—the most recent information available about supplementary benefit claimants relates to November 1978. The figures relating to November 1979 are expected to be available very shortly, and I shall then arrange for the information in the table to be fully updated and published in the Official Report. The additional cost of revising the table in the meantime on the basis of the outdated figures could not be justified.