§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the gross payments of supplementary benefits for each year since 1970 and the amount of recoveries for each of these years; and if he will express the latter as a percentage of the former.
§ Mr. RossiExpenditure on supplementary benefits which is net of recoveries made from current benefit payments is as follows:
Year £ million 1970–71 540 1971–72 664 1972–73 728 1973–74 730 1974–75 988 1975–76 1,352 1976–77 1,770 1977–78 2,141 1978–79 2,324 1979–80 2,502 No central information is available of the total amount recovered from benefit payments.