§ Mrs. BeckettTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what he anticipates will be the end of year cost of housing benefit transitional payments; how many claimants he anticipates will have been awarded such payments; what he anticipates the costs and numbers of claimants in 1988–89 will be following the announcement of the £2 erosion factor; and how many payments and how much in each of the above will be received by pensioners.
§ Mr. Peter LloydAt the time the transitional payment unit was set up it was announced that £65 million was being made available to cover the cost of the payments. Applications for transitional payments will continue to be 537W received until 31 March 1989. Until they have all been received it is not possible to calculate the final cost of housing benefit transitional payments or to give the final number who will receive payments, either now or after the erosion factor is applied. Information on pensioners as a group is not yet available from the unit; we hope to be able to supply this at a later date.