§ Mr. RoweTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the arrangements for paying the new Treasury grant to the national insurance fund.
§ Miss WiddecombeThe Social Security Act 1993, which received Royal Assent in January 1993, gave powers for the payment of a Treasury grant to the national insurance fund to strengthen the fund's balance. Parliamentary approval for this new expenditure will be sought in the 1993–94 main estimate for the Department of Social 421W Security's housing benefit, council tax benefit, payments into the national insurance fund and payments into the social fund in respect of regulated expenditure vote—class XIII, vote 2—presented to the House on 9 March. Pending that approval, expenditure estimated at £1.5 billion will be met by repayable advances from the contingencies fund.