Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on the Enterprise Allowance – 9 June 1986

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the Enterprise Allowance on 9th June 1986.

Mr. Barnett Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what information he has as to how many recipients of the enterprise allowance who were also in receipt of housing benefit had the enterprise allowance treated as unearned income for the purposes of entitlement of housing benefit; and in how many cases it was treated as a business receipt;

(2) if he has any plans to compensate those who have been financially disadvantaged by the decision to treat the enterprise allowance as unearned income under the housing benefit regulations; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Major No such information is collected centrally as the day-to-day administration of the housing benefit scheme is the statutory responsibility of local authorities. The guidance issued by the Department to local authorities is that enterprise allowance should be regarded as a business receipt for the purposes of deciding the income of housing benefit applicants – paragraph 7.15 of the housing benefits guidance manual, a copy of which is in the Library. If the hon. Member has a particular case in mind, he should raise it in the first instance with the local authority concerned.