§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish a table itemising expenditure savings in housing benefit and the numbers of losers between 1982–83 and 1990–91.
§ Mrs. Gillian Shephard[holding answer 3 May 1990]: The housing benefit scheme has been subject to a number of changes since it was introduced in 1982–83, including a fundamental reform in April 1988 and the replacement of rate rebates by a separate community charge benefit in April of this year. Because there are no standard rules for uprating the benefit, calculations of the financial effect of these changes are at best hypothetical; with time, it also becomes increasingly unrealistic to try to separate the effect of changes themselves from those of other factors such as movements in housing costs, changes in unemployment, and movements in income levels.