§ 61. Mrs. Clwydasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the decrease in the heating allowance paid to retirement pensioners from 29 November 1984.
§ Mr. NewtonSupplementary benefit heating additions are being increased from this week in line with the rise in fuel prices over the year to last May. For reasons set out in the answer I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Mr. Bowden) we decided that it would be reasonable to increase to £1, and reapply to heating additions the "available scale margin" deduction for additions for special needs given to people receiving the higher long-term rate of supplementary benefit. No one will be worse off in cash terms as a result of these changes, and they have enabled us to extend automatic heating additions to supplementary pensioner householders aged 65 to 69, and to pay heating additions at the higher rate of £5.20 a week to all supplementary pensioner householders aged 85 or over. Overall, we expect to spend some £400 million this financial year on heating additions after allowing for the effect of the changes referred to above: this is some £20 million more than was spent in 1983–84 and about £140 million more in real terms than was spent in 1978–79.