§ Mr. Peter Bottomleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has received the report of the Social Services Advisory Committee on the Supplementary Benefit (Claims and Payments) Amendment Regulations 1982; and whether he is in a position to respond.
§ Mr. NewtonThe Supplementary Benefit (Claims and Payments) Amendment Regulations 1982 (SI 1982/522) were made on 6 April 1982. The proposals were not formally referred to the Social Security Advisory Committee beforehand because of their urgency, but the regulations were subsequently referred to the committee for its consideration. The committee's report has been laid before Parliament today, together with the Government's response.
The Government are grateful to the Committee and to those interested parties who made representations to it for their useful comments and recommendations.
291WThe regulations reflect the terms of agreements between the Department and the fuel industries, aimed primarily at preventing disconnections and establishing repayment arrangements to secure a continuing fuel supply even for consumers with high debts. The Government welcome the Committee's endorsement of these objectives and agree with the Committee that these particular amendment regulations should be seen only as a limited measure in the overall context of reducing the problem of disconnections of fuel supply for low income consumers. The Department is monitoring the operation of the fuel direct scheme and the effect of these changes, and indications so far are that the new arrangements, which came into force in April, are working well. We will be paying particular attention to the points made by the Committee and will report back to it in due course.