§ Mr. Kaufmanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the cost 268W to the Supplementary Benefits Commission of assistance to council house tenants in the payment of rent; and what additional cost he expects for the next financial year if local authorities increase their rents by an average of £1.50 a week.
§ Mrs. Chalker[pursuant to her reply, 14 January 1980, v. 657]It is not practicable to estimate the proportion of supplementary benefit expenditure attributable to housing costs, since, for the majority of claimants, supplementary benefit only tops up other income to a specified level, and the amount of benefit actually paid cannot be regarded as covering one part of a family's requirements rather than another. However, it has been estimated that if the housing costs of council house tenants in Great Britain were excluded from the calculation of supplementary benefit entitlement altogether, net benefit expenditure would be reduced by about £380 million in 1979–80. If local authorities were to raise their rents by an average of £1.50 a week, the extra net annual cost is estimated at about £50 million.
§ Mr. Kaufmanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many tenants of private landlords are receiving assistance with their rents from the Supplementary Benefits Commission; what is the total cost of such assistance for the latest available financial year; what is the average cost per tenant; and how much extra he expects to be spent on assistance with the rents of tenants of private landlords, for each of the next three financial years, as a result of the provisions of clauses 58 and 62 of the Housing Bill.
§ Mrs. Chalker[pursuant to her reply, 14 January 1980, c. 657]: In Great Britain at August 1979, there were 491,000 tenants of private landlords receiving supplementary benefit. If private tenants' housing costs were excluded from the calculations of supplementary benefit entitlement, net benefit expenditure in 1979–80 would be reduced by about £120 million—an average of £4.70 per claimant per week.
On the question of the financial effects of the Housing Bill, I refer the right hon. Gentleman to the reply of my hon. Friend 269W the Minister for Housing and Construction to his question on 14 January.—[Vol. 976, c. 598.]