§ Mr. David MartinTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the cost to public funds of increasing the £8,000 capital limit for income support and family credit purposes to(a) £15,000, (b) £20,000, (c) £25,000 and (d) £50,000. [27936]
§ Mr. Roger EvansInformation concerning people with capital above the upper capital limit is not sufficiently reliable to enable accurate estimates of the cost of increasing the limit to be provided.
It is not possible, even if an estimate were made in these premises, to give an answer with meaning because the question does not contain any alternative premise for the tariff income rule.
§ Dr. MarekTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 27 June,Official Report, column 586, on claims by way of arrears of supplementary benefit, what are the reasons the information is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. [31995]
§ Mr. EvansThe district of Wrexham and North Wales Coast constitutes the offices of Wrexham, Rhyll, Deeside and Colwyn bay. In June 1994, the office at Wrexham was part of the Mid-Wales and Maelor district. The offices at Rhyll, Deeside and Colwyn bay formed the totally separate district of North Wales Coast.
To obtain the information requested would involve the offices in recovering their giro records for June 1994; identifying the claimants and locating their clerical records; identifying those cases where the payment issued was supplementary benefit; and, as appropriate, identifying the sums involved.
806WOfficials estimate that a minimum of 15 minutes would be required to carry out these tasks in respect of each of the 2,720 clerical giro payments issued by these offices in June 1994, at an overall cost of over £8,000.