§ 109. Mr. Andrew BowdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate the number of retirement pensioners in receipt of supplementary benefit or housing benefit supplement who receive assistance through housing benefit with charges for heating, hot water, cooking and lighting.
§ Mr. PortilloInformation is not collected centrally on which such an estimate could be based but evidence from 177W a study made in 1986 by the social policy research unit at York university suggests that 90,000 claimants receiving supplementary benefit also receive assistance through housing benefit with charges for heating, hot water, cooking and lighting. At May 1986 some 39 per cent. of housing benefit claimants who also received supplemen-tary benefit were retirement pensioners.