To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the change in Exchequer income during the 1991–92 financial year resulting from restoring child benefit, for all children, to its April 1987 value in real terms.

It is estimated that benefit expenditure in 1991–92 would increase by about £775 million if the level of child benefit reflected the movements in the index of retail prices which applied to the annual uprating of benefits generally from April 1988.