§ 9. Mr. Marksasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will consider extending the categories of persons qualified to claim repayment of post-war credits to those workers whose earnings are below the supplementary benefit rates for them and their families.
§ Mr. TaverneI am afraid it would not be practicable to extend the repayment of post-war credits in this manner.
§ Mr. MarksI am sure that my hon. and learned Friend is aware that there are a large number of men who work for less than supplementary benefit rates and that the State owes them money. Would not a payment of this kind be one way of helping and encouraging them? Will he also seek other ways of helping this group?
§ Mr. TaverneThere are many other ways, which go outside the Question, of helping this group, and certainly it is a group which deserves every sympathy. The difficulty about using post-war credits is that of determining for how long people have been under a certain level, which means many detailed inquiries. One must seek identifiable categories as the present system has done.