§ 14. Mr. Willisasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance whether he will consult the Chairman of the National Assistance Board on the Board's practice of treating future holiday payments as current income when a newly unemployed person makes application for National Assistance supplementation to his unemployment benefit.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterNo, Sir. I am informed by the National Assistance Board that in assessing need of assistance it takes account of these payments only when received.
§ Mr. WillisDoes not the right hon. Gentleman think that these payments should be treated as savings, or rather as capital? Why all this niggardly treatment of working men when they become unemployed, in view of the tens of thousands of pounds that company directors get?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThe hon. Gentleman knows that it is the duty of the National Assistance Board to assess need, and when payments of this kind are being made by an employer I would have thought it would have been quite unreasonable to have ignored them.