§ Mr. Richard AllanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has for a national scheme of disregards for war pensioners in respect of council tax and housing benefit to replace the current local discretionary schemes. [4128]
Mr. BradleyI have been asked to reply.
The present disregard aims to strike a balance between acknowledging the special reasons for payment of the pension and the proper use of public funds. War pensioners already receive preferential treatment and benefit from many advantages over their Social Security counterparts.
526WTo increase the disregard of the special treatment already afforded to war pensioners and war widows could be done only at the expense of other deserving groups.
We therefore have no plans to change the current disregards for war pensioners.