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Family Credit

Mr. Steinberg: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the effect on public revenues in 1996-97 and 1997-98 of allowing families in receipt of family credit to claim a child care disregard for each dependent child. [18241]

Mr. Roger Evans [holding answer 29 February 1996]: The estimated cost of disregarding all child care expenses for recipients of family credit would be in the region of £40 million in the long run, with or without allowing for behavioural effects. If all such costs were disregarded, there would be a strong incentive for people who do not pay for child care at the moment to declare some payment. There are about 100,000 people on family credit who would be faced with such an incentive, which could lead to very substantial further costs.

Note:
Estimates based on date 1991-92 and 1993 family expenditure surveys, and the 1994 annual statistical enquiry, uprated to 1996-97 and 1997-98 levels adjusted using data on child care in the 1993-94 family resources survey.

Income Support

Mr. Morley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the effect on public revenues in 1996-97 and 1997-98 of allowing income support claimants to disregard work-related child care expenses in calculating income support entitlement. [18235]

11 Mar 1996 : Column: 478

Mr. Roger Evans [holding answer 29 February 1996]: The estimated cost of offsetting work-related child care expenses against earnings in income support is in the region of £10 million for 1996-97 and 1997-98. This figure takes no account of around 50,000 income support claimants who currently have unpaid child care. On the assumption that these people each started to pay £10 a week for child care, the additional cost is estimated to be in the region of £25 million in both years. These figures do not take account of other behavioural changes or of the additional costs of administration.

Note:
Estimates based on data from the 1991-92 and 1993 family expenditure surveys, and the 1994 annual statistical enquiry, uprated to 1996-97 and 1997-98 levels, adjusted using data on child care from the 1993-94 family resource survey.

Asylum Seekers

Mr. Chris Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what guidance he has issued to local authorities about the form in which they record expenses arising from their responsibilities to asylum seekers following the implementation of new regulations on 5 February. [19613]

Mr. Curry: I have been asked to reply.

An official in my Department wrote to all directors of housing in English local authorities on 12 February to advise them about information that they could collect. I am placing a copy of that letter in the Library of the House.

Income Support (Residential Care)

Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to change income support regulations to reflect the changes in capital asset levels for residential long-term care. [18964]

Mr. Roger Evans: Regulation 12 of the Income-Related Benefits (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1996--SI 1996 No. 462--which was laid before the House on 4 March, implements the changes in the capital asset levels for residential long-term care. The regulations come into force on 1 April in relation to housing benefit and 8 April in relation to income support.

Departmental Research

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list all Departments for Social Security funded pilots, trials and research studies which have been conducted since 1990 in (a) Doncaster, (b) Mexborough, (c) Doncaster travel-to-work area and (d) Mexborough travel-to-work area identifying (i) title, summary and duration of the pilot or trial, (ii) target population and total number of participants and (iii) whether each pilot, trial or research finding was published and the date of publication; and if he will list all other non-DSS research bodies or organisations involved in each pilot, trial or research scheme. [19090]

11 Mar 1996 : Column: 479

Mr. Roger Evans: Since 1990, the following research has been carried out in the geographical areas specified:

Target population, number and duration

1991-95
Doncaster
Title	Annual Local Customer Survey
Duration	Several weeks
Target population	All District customers
Participants	10 per cent. of total customer base
Publication	Yes--results held locally
Non-DSS involvement	None
1993
Mexborough
Doncaster and Mexborough travel-to-work areas
Title	Annual Local Customer Survey
Duration	Several weeks
Target population	250 customers
Participants	138 customers
Publication	Yes--results held locally
Non-DSS involvement	None
1994
Mexborough
Doncaster and Mexborough travel-to-work areas
Title	Annual Local Customer Survey
Duration	Several weeks
Target population	1,349 customers
Participants	1,019 customers
Publication	Yes--results held locally
Non-DSS involvement	None
1995
Mexborough
Doncaster and Mexborough travel-to-work areas
Title	Annual Local Customer Survey
Duration	Several weeks
Target population	1,538 customers
Participants	700 customers
Publication	Yes--results held locally
Non-DSS involvement	None
1995
Doncaster
Title	Qualitative survey of customer representatives
Duration	6 months
Target population	19 local customer representative organisations
Participants	All 19 took part
Publication	Report produced and held locally
Non-DSS involvement	None

(31) No other pilots, trials or research studies have been identified.

(32) All the above research was conducted by the Benefits Agency.

Disability Discrimination Act 1995

Mr. Alfred Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what representations he has received on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 from organisations for people with diabetes; what replies have been sent; and if he will make a statement. [18474]

11 Mar 1996 : Column: 480

Mr. Burt: Representations have been received from a broad range of organisations representing disabled people, which may include people with diabetes. All representations received are given careful consideration.

Guidance Notes

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pages of guidance notes have been issued by (a) his Department, (b) regulatory authorities and (c) non-departmental public bodies in each of the last three years. [18648]

Mr. Burt: The information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Children's Maintenance Payments

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make it his policy to ensure that no court order for children's maintenance payments are stopped by the Child Support Agency until the parent responsible for child support payments has accepted the agency's (a) temporary and (b) other assessments and agreed to make payments from a specified date. [19920]

Mr. Andrew Mitchell: No. The child support scheme aims to ensure that all parents maintain their children to the extent that they can afford to do so. Making action conditional on confirmation that the absent parent accepts the assessment would allow such parents to defer indefinitely any enforcement of maintenance by the Child Support Agency.

Mr. Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will instruct the Child Support Agency to collect information about the number of court orders for children's maintenance payments which they stop and the date, in each case, that payments begin under Child Support Act 1991 arrangements. [19919]

Mr. Mitchell: No. The Child Support Agency has no business need to record the number of such cases nor would it serve any reliable policy monitoring function.

Benefits

Mr. Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many awards for benefit he has suspended under regulation 37A of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 for each year since its introduction; [20084]

(2) how many awards of benefit he has suspended under regulation 37A of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 in each year since 1990. [20086]

Mr. Roger Evans: The information is not available in the format requested as figures are not kept on an annual basis. Such information as is available is set out in the table.

11 Mar 1996 : Column: 481

Provision	Estimated number of cases affected
Regulation 37A of the Social Security Claims and Payments Regulations 1987	52,100

Estimate relates to the number of cases affected since the regulation came into force on 9 March 1992.

Mr. Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many awards of benefit he has suspended pending appeals in the cases of (a) Graham and (b) Halliday, aka Fairey; in how many cases the suspension was lifted following representations by or on behalf of claimants; and if he will give a breakdown of the reasons for lifting the suspension. [20194]

Mr. Evans: The information is set out in the table.

Lead case	Number of suspensions	Number of suspensions lifted
Graham	46,418	1,693
Halliday	2,796	13

Note:

In all cases the suspension was lifted on the grounds of hardship.

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