To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he is yet in a position to announce how housing benefit transitional payments will be treated in April.

We have made it clear from the beginning that housing benefit transitional payments will be reduced as increases in other benefits make them less necessary. We have decided on a flat rate reduction of £3 in these payments from April. The vast majority of recipients will still gain overall in cash terms from the uprating as other social security benefits are being increased by amounts significantly larger than in April 1990.