§ 35. Mr. Biffenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has made of social security payments that have been made during the current year to official and unofficial strikers, respectively, and to those rendered unemployed by strike action; and if he will make a statement.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Health and Social Security (Mr. Norman Pentland)Strikers are not entitled to unemployment benefit, nor to supplementary benefit for their own requirements. In the 12 months to 31st May of this year, approximately £390,000 has been paid in supplementary benefit for the dependants of persons involved in official and unofficial strikes. The statistics kept do not distinguish between official and unofficial strikes; nor are figures available for unemployment benefit and supplementary benefit paid to persons not themselves on strike but unemployed as a result of strike action.
§ Mr. BiffenHas the hon. Gentleman's attention been drawn to the speech by Mr. Ted Varley, the President of the National and Local Government Officers Association, in which he argued that social benefits should be withheld from wildcat strikers? Do not the views of this senior member of a respected trade 925 union deserve very careful consideration by the Department?
§ Mr. PentlandThat suggestion would impose greater hardship on the wives and children of strikers than was imposed even in the days of the old Poor Law. There is another issue also. In the case of the recent Leyland dispute, for example, a rough calculation suggests that the men lost upwards of £800,000 in wages and supplementary benefit payments totalled about £52,000. It would take a very great deal of overtime at the end of the dispute to make up for that shortfall.
§ Mr. OrmeWas not the Leyland dispute an official trade union dispute in which dispute benefit was paid by the union concerned? Can my hon. Friend say what proportion the £390,000 represents of the total payments of supplementary benefit?
§ Mr. PentlandI am sorry that I cannot give the exact figures. It was, however, pointed out by the Donovan Report that it appeared that during the period 1962 to 1966 only about 8 per cent. of workers involved in stoppages lasting more than two weeks received supplementary benefit. Even in prolonged strikes lasting several weeks, the proportion of strikers claiming supplementary benefit is seldom more than 35 per cent.