§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish a table showing what expenditure on social security would be in real terms in each year since 1973–74 if the number of pensioners, sick, unemployed, widows and families, etcetera had remained unchanged at 1973–74 levels; and what proportion of the gross domestic product such spending accounted for in each year.
§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate what expenditure on(a) housing benefit, (b) council tax benefit and (c) the social fund is attributable to the rise in unemployment.
§ Mr. ScottInformation in the form requested is not available. However, in 1992–93 expenditure on housing benefit and community charge benefit for unemployed people in Great Britain was £2,032 million. Awards from the social fund to unemployed people in Great Britain amounted to £115 million excluding cold weather payments. Information about cold weather payments is not available.
§ Ms RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish a table showing social security expenditure as a proportion of gross domestic product in each year since 1963.
§ Mr. BurtThe percentage figures for each year from 1963–64 until 1977–78 are in the table. Those for subsequent years are shown in table 4 of the Department of Social Security publication "The Growth of Social Security".
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Years Benefit expenditure as a percentage of GDP 1963–64 6.3 1964–65 6.0 1965–66 6.6 1966–67 6.6 1967–68 8.1 1968–69 8.0 1969–70 7.4 1970–71 7.2
Years Benefit expenditure as a percentage of GDP 1971–72 7.5 1972–73 7.4 1973–74 7.4 1974–75 7.7 1975–76 8.1 1976–77 8.6 1977–78 8.9 Source used to obtain figures "Annual Abstract of Statistics", various years.