§ Mr. McFallTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if each appropriate category of social security benefits will be separately accorded the £8 ex gratia payment made by his Department as a result of an error in calculation of the retail prices index.
§ Mr. ScottIn the interests of combining as far as possible fairness with speed of payment, an £8 ex gratia payment (or £5 in the case of mobility allowance) will be made in respect of each instrument of payment which contains payment of qualifying benefit for the week commencing 1 February. This means that we have been able to ensure that 12 million people will receive special payments from this week. The additional administrative complexities and costs of attempting to make one payment per eligible benefit would have been considerable.