asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the number of ratepayers currently receiving lower rate rebates as a result of the changes to the rate rebate taper since the publication of the Green paper on reform of social security in June 1985; and how many rate rebate recipients he estimates have lost entitlement to rate rebate as a result of the change in the taper since that time.

Since the Green Paper "Reform of Social Security" was published in June 1985, the rates taper has been increased once. The number of rate rebate recipients who received less housing benefit at the point of change in November 1985, the only date for which information is readily available, is estimated at 1·9 million, of whom about 450,000 lost all entitlement to a rate rebate.