§ Mr. Alan HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many new claims have been made for income support where the claimant has liability for a mortgage since October 1995; and how many of these have been treated as existing claims where the claimant(a) is a carer, (b) has been refused payments under a mortgage protection policy because of a pre-existing condition or because he or she is HIV positive, (c) is a lone parent and (d) is a remand prisoner. [37423]
§ Mr. Roger EvansThe information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
The changes that were introduced in October 1995 differentiated between loans taken out before 2 October 1995 (existing housing costs) and loans taken out after that date (new housing costs). Claimants in the above groups who have new housing costs have them treated as if they were existing housing costs.
The number of claimants who claimed income support for mortgage interest since October 1995, and who were still in receipt in March 1996—the latest available figure—was 73,000, of whom 71,000 had existing housing costs. The remaining 2,000 claimants had new housing costs, some of whom were treated as existing 566W housing costs because they belonged to one of the specified groups.