§ Mr MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security which local authorities do not exercise their discretion to disregard war widows' pensions and war pensions when assessing entitlement to housing benefit and council tax rebate. [13941]
§ Mr. PondTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will estimate the cost of a uniform disregard of war and war widows pensions by all local authorities when assessing entitlement to housing benefit or council tax rebates; and if she will give the figures separately for each of the authorities who currently give no disregard or only a partial disregard. [13166]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe cost to local authorities (LA) in England, Scotland and Wales if all LAs fully disregarded war and war widow's pensions when calculating entitlement to housing benefit and council tax benefit is estimated to be £70 million. This is in addition to the cost to central Government of £15 million for the statutory disregards in these benefits.
Information on discretionary local schemes for housing and council tax benefits is not routinely collected. This is because any such scheme must be funded from an authority's own resources and, therefore, the decision to operate a scheme is entirely for individual LAs.