HC Deb 16 February 1988 vol 127 c585W
Mr. Darling

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what account was taken in fixing the individual student grant award for 1988–89 of the loss of students' entitlement to housing benefit from 1 April.

Mr. Jackson

Students in circumstances which now entitle them to claim housing benefit will not lose that entitlement from 1 April. The reformed system of housing benefit, which will apply to all categories of claimant, was one of the many factors taken into account in the Government's decision to raise grant rates by 4 per cent. in September of this year.