asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether she can identify the principles governing the entitlement of overseas students to supplementary benefit, having regard to the immigration requirement that they should establish the ability to finance themselves during their course of study as a condition of being admitted to the country and embarking on the same.

Supplementary benefit is only awarded to a student from overseas when there is unexpected hardship, for example, if his funds have been cut off by some action outside his control. Each case is considered on its merits, and in deciding whether to afford help, account is taken, for example, of the availability of funds from other sources, the point he had reached in his studies, and his own future plans.