3. Mr. Leeasked the Minister of Labour whether the allowances made to boys under the Special Aptitude Scheme are based on the boy's wages, or his earnings.
§ Mr. CarrThe allowances are determined after taking account of regular earnings and other income and of necessary expenditure while living away from home.
Mr. LeeIs the Parliamentary Secretary aware that this is really penalising the boys? They are being asked to do overtime and to try to earn more, and when they do so it is put against the allowances which they get from the Ministry of Labour. It is not, therefore, much of an incentive to them to go ahead. Would the hon. Gentleman look at that?
§ Mr. CarrThe object of the scheme, of course, is to enable a boy who has not got training facilities available in his home area to be able to benefit from them in a distant area, not necessarily to make him better off for doing so. Its purpose is to ensure that he shall not be penalised through lack of facilities in 190 his own area, and, so far as I know, the scheme is doing that.
Mr. LeeDoes not the hon. Gentleman appreciate that he is in fact penalising them? If we ask for increased productivity and effort, and then, when a boy agrees to attempt to increase production, it is put against what he would otherwise receive from the Ministry of Labour, that is in fact penalising him for attempting to be more useful.
§ Mr. CarrI will certainly keep this in mind, and the committee of which I am chairman, or sub-committee of the N.J.A.C. looking into training, will, of course, look at this scheme, amongst other facilities.