Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Public Expenditure (Benefit Take-Up) on 28th November 1985.
Mr. Kirkwood Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what level of take-up of means-tested benefit was used as an assumption in setting the public expenditure totals for future financial years.
Mr. Major Forecasts of expenditure on means-tested benefits are not based on any explicit assumption that a specified proportion of those entitled to a benefit will actually claim it. Rather, they are based on changing trends in the actual number of beneficiaries, and thus take account of changes in take-up only implicitly.