§ 48. Mr. StevensTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what he is doing to monitor the social security reforms.
§ Mr. ScottWe have given an undertaking to monitor all aspects of the social security reforms. This is a continuing process and is showing that the reforms are meeting their main objectives in producing a benefit system that is easier to understand and administer, that is better targeted on priority groups and that enhances rather than obstructs individual responsibility and choice.
The monitoring process has also enabled us to make improvements where these have been shown to be necessary. For example, since April 1988:
—the capital limit for housing benefit has been increased from £6,000 to £8,000, at a cost of £30 million;—transitional payments of housing benefit have been introduced for pensioners, working families with children, sick and disabled people and widows, at a cost of £70 million;—£70 million extra help has been given to poorer families with children on top of a normal uprating;—nearly £200 million extra will be available to older and disabled pensioners from October this year, on top of their uprated benefits;—the independent living fund has been established to enable severely disabled people to live independently in the community;—extra help will be given, from July this year, to 16 and 17-year-olds who are forced to live away from home;—women widowed before the introduction of the reforms have had their benefit restored in line with the expectations that they formed then;—premiums within income support are being extended to all claimants receiving urgent cases payments, notably asylum seekers.I believe that these measures demonstrate the Government's readiness to respond quickly in those areas 433W where fine tuning is shown to be necessary and that they add to the success and underlying coherence of the reforms.