§ Mr. TimmsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn) on 30 January 1995,Official Report, column 520, (1) how many of those who have been refused income support owing to the habitual residence test are European Economic Area nationals residing in the United Kingdom under EC rights of residence directives as students, pensioners, or non-economically active persons;
(2) what proportion of the British nationals who have been refused income support owing to the habitual residence test have one parent who is a British national and one parent who is a national of another country;
(3) what proportion of the British nationals have been refused income support owing to the habitual residence test had (a) never previously lived in the United Kingdom and (b) never previously been employed in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Roger EvansThis information is not recorded centrally and could he obtained only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. TimmsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what account he has taken of the advice given by the Social Security Advisory Committee that is possible to he habitually resident in more than one country or in none; and what responsibility the Government have to British nationals in this country who have been excluded from income-related benefits on the basis of the habitual residence test.
§ Mr. Roger EvansDecisions about whether an income support claimant is habitually resident are made by the independent adjudication officer in the first instance. The chief adjudication officer has drawn attention to the fact that a person may be habitually resident in more than one country or in none in the guidance that has provided for adjudication officers.
§ Mr. TimmsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what measures he is taking to monitor the impact of the habitual residence test on(a) unsuccessful claimants, (b) local authorities and (c) benefits agency offices.
§ Mr. Roger EvansInformation about the number of claims to income support where habitual residence is considered is collected monthly. This includes information about the number of unsuccessful claims. The620W impact on Benefits Agency offices also continues to he monitored from these monthly statistical returns. The impact on local authorities will be monitored from the normal range of management information statistics which local authorities submit from time to time.
§ Mr. TimmsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Islington (Mr. Corbyn) on 30 January 1995,Official Report, column 520, how many European economic area nationals were estimated to claim income support in a year before implementation of the habitual residence test; and what assessment he has made of the reasons for the numbers of claimants being refused income support under the test.
§ Mr. Roger EvansInformation identifying claims for income support from EEA nationals was not available before the introduction of the test. However, our assessment of the reason why people have been refused income support under the test is that it confirms that until its introduction a number of people received benefit who had no close connection with this country.
§ Ms GordonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the estimated administration cost of the habitual resident test from 1 August 1994 to 1 August 1995; and what is the amount of income support that the Government estimate will be saved by the application of this test.
§ Mr. Roger Evans[pursuant to his reply 2 November 1994, column 2672]: I regret that the information provided on the estimated annual income support saving contained an error. The correct information is as follows.
The estimated annual income support saving is about £3 million rather than "in excess of £7 million" as inadvertently stated in the earlier answer, which represented the estimated full saving including housing benefit and council tax benefit.