§ 56. Mr. LivseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the effect of the 1988 housing benefit regulations on war widows and pensioners.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe April 1988 housing benefit reforms have provided for a system that is beter targeted, simpler to understand and to administer, and which provides for a greater degree of accountability in local government. Special treatment within the system which continues to be provided for war widows and war pensioners was increased by 25 per cent. in April by means of the £5 disregard which applies across the income-related benefits. Local authorities continue to have a discretion, as they had under the old scheme, to disregard further amounts of these pensions. The effect of the changes in individual cases will vary widely, but transitional protection is available in those cases where individual war pensioners or war widows saw a sharp drop in their housing benefit as a result of changes to the statutory national scheme.