asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much was paid in supplementary benefit to single people under the age of 18 years in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

[pursuant to his reply, 10 February 1987, c. 196]: Based on the number of single claimants aged under 18 and the average weekly payment to them on a particular day in December each year, the annual equivalent expenditure was as follows:

Year	Expenditure £ million
1982	188
1983	163
1984	191

These figures cannot be regarded as a complete or precise estimate of total expenditure on supplementary benefit to this group of claimants because—