§ Mr. Meadowcroftasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what figures he has for the number of children living in households who are receiving board and lodging supplementary benefit payments.
66Wvoluntary organisations working with deaf and hard-of-hearing people under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act.
§ Mr. MajorI regret that the information is not available in the form requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. In December 1984 (the latest date for which figures are available) about 6,000 claimants with dependent children received supplementary benefit board and lodging payments.
§ Mr. Meadowcroftasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what figures he has for the number of children currently in care because their families are homeless; and how this figure has changed for each of the quarters in each year since 1979.
§ Mrs. CurrieA child may be taken into care for a number of reasons of which homelessness may be a contributory factor, although not identified as a specific cause in the statistics. The information available on children in care where the specific cause is that their families are homeless is given in the table for 1979–84. Information for each quarter is not readily available centrally.
Children in care because of homelessness, 1979–84 England As at 31 March Number1 Percentage change from previous year 1979 1,379 1980 1,308 -5.1 1981 1,115 -14.8 1982 981 -12.0 1983 825 -15.9 1984 713 -13.6 1 Some figures include estimates from information for earlier years.