§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average rent payment to (a) supplementary benefit recipients and (b) unemployment benefit recipients at the latest available date.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe hon. Member will be aware that it is not possible to distinguish the amount of supplementary benefit paid for housing costs in general, or for rent in particular.
433WAt December 1980 the provisional estimate of the average housing requirement included in the assessment of all householder supplementary benefit recipients was £9.80 a week. For unemployed householders in receipt of supplementary allowance (a) with and (b) without unemployment benefit the equivalent estimates were (a) £13.30 and (b) £10.40.