§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his estimate of the reduction in public expenditure in the current financial year as a result of reduction in entitlement to benefits since 1978; and how much of this has been targeted on raising the real level of benefit to those whom the Government want to help financially.
§ Mr. ScottIt is not possible to estimate the cumulative impact of the many changes to social security benefits which have been made since 1978, not least because of the major restructuring of income-related benefits in April this year. However, between 1978–79 and 1988–89 social security spending increased by over £31 billion, an increase of 33 per cent. in real terms. Around one third of this increase was due to improvements in the average amounts of benefit paid to claimants.