§ Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he intends to revise the estimates published in "The Government's Expenditure Plans 1982–83 to 1984–85" for unemployment benefits and supplementary allowances for the years 1982–83 and 1983–84; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. Newton:These estimates are revised from time to time. The latest estimate of unemployment benefit expenditure in 1982–83 is given in the Government Actuary's report on the draft of the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 1982 (Cmnd. 8588). The decrease compared with estimate given in the Public Expenditure White paper is due mainly to fewer of the unemployed being entitled to unemployment benefit which is leading in turn to a broadly compensating increase in supplementary allowances for 1982–83. The 1982–83 estimate for supplementary allowances also requires revision to take account of the partial start in November 1982 of the housing benefit scheme. Revised estimates for 1983–84 will be published later.