§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether foster parent allowances will be treated as income when calculating entitlement to community charge benefit.
§ Mrs. Gillian ShephardThe community charge benefit scheme will not treat as income any fostering allowance made to a claimant.
§ Mr. JoplingTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the cost of applying individually to a husband and wife the £8,000 limit on assets which cause a community charge payer to be ineligible for rebates.
§ Mrs. Gillian ShephardInformation on the individual capital holding of members of couples is not available.
§ Mr. MarlowTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the likely cost of community charge rebate for 1990–91; and how much that would increase if savings were to be disregarded.
§ Mrs. Gillian Shephard[holding answer 8 February 1990]: Expenditure on community charge benefit in England, Wales and Scotland in 1990–91 is currently forecast to be £1.75 billion. Information is not available to make precise estimates but it seems probable that expenditure would increase by between £250 million and £300 million if the capital limit was abolished and no income was assumed to be derived from capital holdings.