§ Baroness Jegerasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the total saving to public funds of the proposals set out in the Statutory Instruments on Social Security approved by the House on 26th July 1985.
§ Baroness TrumpingtonThe overall effect of these instruments, together with associated proposals announced by the Government, is not a saving to public funds but an additional expenditure of some £2,000 million, thus increasing the total Social Security budget to some £42,000 million. The figure of £2,000 million is a net figure, after allowing for the effect of certain changes which increase the cost of the up-rating to about £25 million more than it would otherwise have been (the improvements in family income supplement, the extension of lower rate heating additions to sick and diabled householders on the long-term rate of supplementary benefit, and the real-terms increase in the child's need allowance for housing benefit), and certain other changes or proposals which reduce the cost of the up-rating to about £270 million less than it would otherwise have been (the up-rating of child benefit by less than inflation, the abolition of new awards of supplementary benefit central heating additions, the increase in the housing benefit rates taper).