§ Mr. FishburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has completed his review of income support for hostel dwellers.
§ Mr. PortilloHostel dwellers not in full-time work, like people in ordinary board and lodging accommodation, are helped by special rates of income support with accommodation costs as well as with other necessities and are not eligible for housing benefit. From next April, ordinary boarders will be eligible for housing benefit to help meet their lodging charges and normal income support to help with other costs.
We have reviewed the arrangements for hostel dwellers in the light of the changes affecting boarders, taking into account the reformed structure of the social security scheme. As part of the review the Department commissioned the Policy Studies Institute to find out more about hostels, their clientele, costs, sources of funding and services provided.
Our conclusion is that the present rules contain anomalies. They assume that hostel dwellers receive prepared meals from their landlords, whereas half do their own cooking. They place special limits on hostel charges which have little in common with the controls on housing benefit paid for normal rents, yet most hostel dwellers live in ordinary houses. They treat a small group of people as different from other claimants, when in fact the differences are not clear cut: for example, over half of hostel dwellers receiving income support are registering as available for work, and 80 per cent. of hostels provide no personal care for residents.
We are therefore issuing a consultation paper today to interested organisations inviting views on two alternative approaches to change. I have made arrangements for copies to be placed in the Library. The first proposal is to pay housing benefit and normal income support to all hostel dwellers from April 1989. The second proposal would limit any changes to the majority of hostel dwellers who receive no substantial personal care from the hostel. Neither proposal would apply to hostels registered as residential care homes.
Comments on the proposals are requested by 23 September.
§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the public expenditure arising from(a) moving from supplementary benefits to income support, (b) the original transitional protection arrangements and (c) the further additional transitional protection arrangements announced on 27 April.
§ Mr. PortilloEstimates of the information requested are(a) £220 million higher than if supplementary benefit had continued with a normal uprating, (b) rather more than £200 million, and (c) the additional income support and housing benefit transitional protection could amount to £100 million.