§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Prime Minister if he will publish the reply he has sent to the letter of Mr. E. B. Glover QC, on the subject of the effect of VAT on energy bills for pensioners.
§ The Prime Minister[holding answer 14 April 1993]:A reply has been sent on my behalf by the Department of Social Security. It is not my normal practice to publish correspondence, but it explains that the annual uprating of benefits will in due course reflect the increases in fuel bills; that we will be making available extra help to people on income support and income-related benefits which we will announce in the autumn and which will be paid from April 1994 before the bills have to be paid; and that the Government are not taking back the extra help they gave to pensioners on income support to assist them in paying the community charge, even though the community charge has now been abolished.