To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his Department's estimate of the cost of restoring student entitlement to income support during the summer; and what was the cost in the last year before it was removed.

The estimated expenditure on income support for students during the 1990 summer vacation was about £27 million. The estimated cost of restoring student entitlement to income support during the summer vacations, based on information available when the present arrangements were introduced, would be around £30 million at current prices.