§ 10. Mr. Jannerasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance whether he is aware that the allowance for a widowed mother with young children is less at the present time than that granted to a foster mother; and whether, in view of the hardship felt by many of these widowed mothers, he will take steps to increase their allowance without delay.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterSubstantial increases in the benefits provided for widowed mothers are included in the National Insurance Bill which I introduced last week.
§ Mr. JannerI appreciate that, but is the Minister not aware that even now a foster mother will get more than a widowed mother, and that about 30 per cent. of widowed mothers are applying for National Assistance, which is a proportion greater than in any other section of people receiving benefits? In the circumstances, does he not think that he ought, at least, to bring the widowed mother's allowance up to that of the foster parent?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterOn the second part of the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question, we shall, I think, have to see the effect of the improvement contained in the Bill. As regards his first point, I really do not think there is much comparison which can usefully be made 586 between payments made by local authorities to people for looking after somebody else's children and social security payments made to enable widows to look after their own children. I do not think that there is any real line of comparison.
§ 11. Mrs. Mannasked the Minister of Pensions and National insurance how many widows are drawing 10s. weekly pensions; what are their ages; and when they qualify for the maximum widow's pension.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThere are about 120,000 widows drawing the old widow's basic pension of 10s. a week, about 3,000 of whom are under 40, 27,000 between 40 and 50, and 90,000 between 50 and 60. This pension is paid only to widows who do not satisfy the conditions for the higher widows' benefits of the National Insurance scheme but who have residual rights from the former scheme.
§ Mrs. MannIs it not time something was done for these women, for widows between 50 and 60–97,000 of them—who do not conform to or fit in with the Regulations? It is not their fault that they do not conform or fit in. In spite of his very smart replies, I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman has a kind heart. Will he not think of these elderly women and remember how difficult it is for them, in competition with younger women, to get jobs in shops, factories, or the like?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThe hon. Lady will, of course, recall that under last year's Act a considerable amount was done to help this particular category of pensioner. Indeed, the National Insurance Advisory Committee, whose recommendations we adopted and put into law, said that those changes would deal with obvious cases of real hardship. That was last year's Act.