Special Payments

HC Deb 10 February 1988 vol 127 cc271-2W

Mr. Gordon Brown

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish the formula under which he has calculated the special payment for pensioners and others to adjust for the proper level of inflation.

Mr. Scott

In the main, the maximum loss to retirement pensioners and other groups eligible for £8 special payments is £7.85 over the full two years affected by the error in the retail price index. The benefits in question have been 5p a week less than they would have been during 1987–88, a 53-week benefit year, and 10p a week less than they would have been during 1988–89, a 52-week benefit year. Mobility allowance will have been paid at rates 5p a week less than it would have been in each year, yielding a loss of £5.25; a special payment of £5 will be made on this benefit.