Social Security Benefits
Work and Pensions
Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the saving to his Department of preventing the payment of non-contributory benefits to people not resident in the UK.
Chris Grayling (Minister of State (Employment), Work and Pensions; Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
EU rules require us to pay the non-contributory winter fuel payment, carer's allowance, attendance allowance and the care component of disability living allowance to people who are resident in the EEA or Switzerland.
In the 2010-11 financial year, the latest year for which outturn data are available, total spending by this Department on non-contributory benefits to those not resident in the UK was around £32 million. This expenditure is broken down by benefit in the following table:
| Non-contributory benefit expenditure for people domiciled outside the UK, £ million, nominal, figures rounded to the nearest £ million | |
| 2010-11 | £ million |
| Winter fuel payments | 16 |
| Attendance allowance | 3 |
| Carer's allowance | 0 |
| Disability living allowance | 11 |
| Severe disablement allowance | 2 |
| Sources: 1. DWP benefit expenditure tables, available at http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/index.php?page=expenditure 2. Winter fuel payments information taken from DWP Statistical and Accounting Data. 3. Figures may include a very small amount of expenditure where the claimant's residence is not known. | |
However, as future migration patterns and benefit take-up rates are uncertain, we cannot be sure that future expenditure will be similar to past expenditure.