§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will publish the current value of the cold weather allowance if increased to a sum equivalent to the value of £5 in 1986 using the September increase in the RPI to calculate the current value;
(2) if he will estimate the cost to the Exchequer of increasing the cold weather allowance to 1994 price levels and paying the allowance at the new level during financial year 1994–95;
(3) whether he will consider increasing the level of payment of cold weather allowance to a sum equivalent to £5 in 1986 and raising the annual increases thereafter in line with the increase in the RPI;
(4) what increases he proposes to the value of the cold weather allowance to compensate for the increases in VAT on fuel costs imposed in the 1993 Budget.
§ Mr. Roger EvansCold weather payments towards the cost of domestic fuel bills will increase to £7 from 1 November 1994 and to £7£50 from 1 November 1995. If the previous payment of £5, originally introduced in December 1986, had been increased using the September value of the fuel and light component of the retail price index the amount would have increased to £6.70 from 1 November 1994–30p less than the actual new payment. Using this alternative payment, the Exchequer would have saved £619,256 this winter, if the same number of cold weather payments were made as last year. As cold weather payments are a contribution towards fuel costs designed to complement day-to-day living expenses met through income support, we have no plans to link these payments with the RPI.