§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Mid-Kent (Mr. Rowe), of 23 March,Official Report, column 342, why the figures for benefit expenditure as a percentage of GDP are different for the years 1978–79, 1980–81, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92 and 1992–93 from those given in The Growth of Social Security, Department of Social Security 1993. [17776]
§ Mr. HagueThe Growth of Social Security was published in 1993 and since then benefit expenditure has reflected certain changes.
(a) From 3 October 1994 responsibility for special pension payments to certain categories of war widows was transferred to DSS from the Ministry of Defence. Total benefit expenditure from 1990–91, when the special payments began, has been adjusted to reflect the transfer.These figures have been shown in the 1995 departmental report, table 1.(b) Outturn figures for housing benefit have been adjusted from 1989–90 to reflect actual costs incurred in respect of each financial year and have been updated in line with the latest actual outturn data available from the local authorities. Previous totals had included interim estimates from the local authorities.These figures have been shown in the 1995 departmental report, tables 2 and 3.The differences for 1978–79 and 1980–81 are caused by different rounding conventions.