Mr. Bowdenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (a) what is his latest estimate of the number of retirement pensioners who receive housing benefit supplement; (b) what is his estimate of the numbers of retirement pensioners who will cease to qualify for housing benefit supplement in April 1987 as a result of the changes to supplementary benefit arrangements announced on 22nd October 1986; and (c) what is his estimate of the proportion of retirement pensioners who quality for housing benefit supplement but do not claim it and of the amount of housing benefit supplement that goes unclaimed.
§ Mr. LyellInformation on all the details requested is not available.
- (a) Information from local authority subsidy claims for the 1986–87 financial year, indicates that there are approximately 320,000 retirement pensioner households receiving housing benefit supplement.
- (b) The number of retirement pensioners affected is too small for a reliable estimate to be made. In such cases the reduction as a result of these changes will not in general exceed 10p per week.
- (c) Estimates of take-up of housing benefit supplement will be available in a few weeks' time.