§ Lord Stallardasked Her Majesty's Government:
What was the amount of increase in the fuel element of supplementary benefit between 1979 and 1984.
§ Lord GlenarthurSupplementary benefit claimants are free to spend their benefit as they choose, and there is no separately identifiable element in the supplementary benefit scale rales for heating. Heating additions are given to those people on supplementary benefit who need extra warmth. The three main rates of heating addition which applied for most of 1979 were set in November 1979 at 85p. £1.70 and £2.55. The number of main rates was reduced to two in 1980. The current rates were set in November 1983 at £2.05. The present lower rate is 141 per cent. higher than the November 1978 lowest rate of heating addition. The fuel and light component of the retail index increased by 101 per cent. over the same period.