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Mrs. Margaret Ewing
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his estimate of the underpayment from the Consolidated Fund as a result of failure of potential beneficiaries to claim benefits to which they would have been entitled in each of the last five years.
Mr. Scott
The most recent available figures show that 90 per cent. of income-related benefit is taken up by those eligible. Available information is for 1983 and 1985 and is as follows:
| 1983 unclaimed (£ million) | 1985 unclaimed (£ million) | |
| Supplementary Benefit | 570 | 550 |
| Housing Benefit | ||
| Certificated HB1 | 1180 | 150 |
| Standard HB3 | 2310 | 360 |
| Family Income Supplement | 55 | 590 |
| Totals | 1,115 | 1,150 |
| Source: Technical Notes. | ||
| Notes: | ||
| 1 Includes the unclaimed entitlements of Households not receiving HB plus the excess of certificated amount over standard receipt for those eligible to certificated HB but receiving a lesser amount of standard HB. All figures exclude families where the head or spouse is in full-time self employment. | ||
| 2 Figures refer to 1984 for HB. | ||
| 3 All figures exclude households receiving or eligible for certificated HB. | ||
| 4 1983–84; based on pooled FES data for reasons of sample size. Figures exclude families where head or spouse is in full-time self employment. | ||
| 5 1985–86; based on pooled FES data for reasons of sample size. Figures exclude families where head or spouse is in full-time self employment. | ||
| 6 Detailed analysis on both caseloads and expenditure take-up are contained in the Technical Notes, copies of which are in the Library. | ||