§ Mrs. WiseTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will review his policy in relation to war pensions and housing benefit so that local authorities which disregard war pensions when making their assessment would be recompensed from central funds;
(2) what is his estimate of the savings to public funds which he makes by not disregarding war pensions when housing benefit is assessed.
§ Mr. Peter Lloyd[holding answer 4 July 1989]: When assessing housing benefit local authorities must statutorily disregard £5 of a war widow's pension or a war disablement pension. They receive direct subsidy for the housing benefit arising from this normal calculation.
Where local authorities operate local schemes by which they disregard further amounts of war pensions, the resulting extra housing benefit does not qualify for housing benefit subsidy. The balance is a charge on local rate or community charge payers.
It is estimated that the cost of disregarding war pensions in full would increase public expenditure on housing benefit and community charge benefit by some £40 million. However, support is reflected in the rate support grant for the discretionary schemes operated by local authorities. The resulting net cost of about £30 million would be of very little benefit to the poorest war pensioners, but give considerable extra sums to some who are relatively well off.