To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will estimate how much extra grant would be gained by Cambridgeshire if an additional 1,000 pensioners in the county were in receipt of income support. [124616]

In 2003–04 Cambridgeshire county council was one of the authorities who received the maximum increase possible under the 2003–04 floor and ceiling damping scheme i.e. they were a ceiling authority. For this reason if there had been an additional 1,000 pensioners in receipt of income support in the county, although Cambridgeshire's Formula Spending Share would have increased by £524,494, they would have continued to receive the same level of grant. In 2003–04, Cambridgeshire received an increase in formula grant of 8.5 per cent. on a like-for-like basis with 2002–03.