HC Deb 13 April 1989 vol 150 cc681-2W
Mr. Andrew Bowden

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps his Department is taking to publicise the extension until 30 June of the deadline for claiming housing benefit transitional payments; and what steps his Department is taking to encourage take-up of housing benefit transitional payment.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

The extension of the closing date for housing benefit transitional payments to 30 June was announced in the reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Mrs. Roe) on 3 March at column365 and publicised in a press release issued on the same day. A guidance circular was issued to each local authority and local social security office on 6 March, and this has also been sent to the major advice agencies. Leaflets (RR4 Housing Benefit—New Rules), which contain an application form, for anyone still wishing to apply for transitional protection are available from a wide variety of outlets, for example local council offices, local social security offices, from the freephone and freepost service at the transitional payments unit and advice agencies.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what is the average waiting time between a claim for housing benefit transitional payment and its subsequent payment to the claimant;

(2) how many outstanding claims for housing benefit transitional payments are still awaiting process at the Glasgow transitional payments office;

(3) what steps are being taken to expedite the processing of claims for housing benefit transitional payment.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Up to 10 April, 467,419 applications for housing benefit transitional payments had been received, of which 422,029 have been assessed. Of the 45,390 applications outstanding, 41,153 are cases where an inquiry form is still awaited from the local authority. The clearance time for applications varies considerably from case to case and depends on how long local authorities take to return inquiry forms and whether further inquiries have to be made from the transitional payments unit (TPU). For straightforward cases, it takes two days from receiving an application in the TPU to sending the inquiry form to the local authority, 30 days for the local authority to return the inquiry form to the TPU, a further five days from receiving that inquiry form at the TPU to deciding whether a payment can be made, and depending upon the point in the payment cycle the first payment will be made within two to four weeks and at four weekly intervals thereafter. The TPU has contacted all those local authorities who have had inquiry forms outstanding for more than eight weeks requesting an urgent response.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will estimate the number of single parent families on family credit who suffered a net loss in income as a result of the housing benefit changes in 1988;

(2) if he will estimate the average weekly amount lost by a single-parent family as a result of family credit being included in the calculations in order to determine elegibility to housing benefit; and what savings have accrued to his Department's annual budget as a result.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

The estimated effects on claimants of the April 1988 changes were set out in the "Impact of the Reformed Structure of Income-Related Benefits" published in October 1987. Further information is not available.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether he has any plans to increase financial assistance to single-parent families who have suffered increased housing costs as a result of changes in the housing benefit rules.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

We have no plans to do so. An enhanced premium was included within the housing benefit applicable amounts for all lone parents last April in recognition of their special needs and transitional protection was offered to all those who had lost more than £2.50 per week as a result of the changes in the rules. Since then there have been no changes in the housing benefit rules for single parent families which would have resulted in increased housing costs.