§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what criteria he took into account before deciding not to stop unemployment and supplementary benefit payments to D-day veterans who travelled abroad for the anniversary of the D-day landings; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what criteria he takes into account before allowing payment of unemployment and supplementary benefits to continue when claimants travel abroad; if he will list all cases in the last three years in which he has done so, together with the circumstances in each case; and if he will make a statement;
(3) if he will arrange for supplementary benefit and unemployment payments to be continued in respect of unemployed athletes seeking to compete in the Los Angeles Olympics for the duration of any absences from the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.
§ Dr. BoysonUnemployment benefit is not normally payable to people who go abroad. The only exception to this general rule is for certain unemployed people who go temporarily to another member state of the European Community to seek work there, when EC regulations provide for the home state's unemployment benefit to continue to be paid for a period, subject to quite stringent conditions. In the case of supplementary benefit the regulations allow some claimants, such as supplementary pensioners, to retain their entitlement for up to four weeks' absence abroad, but unemployed claimants who go abroad have no entitlement to supplementary benefit. Decisions on claims to unemployment benefit and supplementary benefit are a matter for the independent adjudicating authorities and they are responsible for applying the law in individual cases.
In very exceptional circumstances ex-gratia payments have been made to some claimants whose benefit has been disallowed under these rules. This was done where bereaved relatives travelled to the Falkland Islands in 1983 to visit war graves there. Similar arrangements were made in respect of a few unemployed people who attended the D-day anniversary ceremony. On each of these special occasions the numbers and amounts of payments involved were very small. The decisions were made on compassionate grounds to enable people to participate in official events which commemorated relatives or comrades who had died in action. There have been no other comparable arrangements of this nature in the last three years. We do not consider it appropriate to make such special arrangements in respect of unemployed claimants wishing to attend the Olympic games.
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§ Mr. Johnasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the changes in benefit entitlement rules announced in his statement to the House on 18 June, stating in each case whether the effect will be to increase or to reduce public expenditure; and if he will estimate in each case (a) the numbers who will be affected and (b) the effect on public expenditure (i) in 1984–85 and (ii) in a full year.
§ Dr. BoysonThe information is as follows. The change to the payment of unemployment benefit fortnightly in arrears is excluded from the table because it does not affect entitlement to benefit. Savings arise from the elimination of over-payments.
Proposal Numbers affected Public expenditure effect (£ million) 1984–85 full year savings Increase available scale margin and apply it to heating additions 1.8 million 30 86 Uprate FIS claims at time of renewal 200,000 7 11 additional expenditure Extension of automatic entitlement to supplementary benefit heating additions on grounds of age 170,000 9 23 Improve war widows age allowance 50,000 2 5 Modify residence test for non-contributory retirement pension 1,000 0.1 0.3 Introduce full disregard of MSC living away from home allowance for housing benefit recipients 5,000 0.3 1.0 Prevent double deduction of amenity charges from housing benefit when tenancies overlap 8,000 0.04 0.1