§ 14. Mr. Barnesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will institute a study of the future of family allowances, with particular reference to negative income tax as an earnings-related alternative to the present system; and if he will publish the results as a Green Paper.
§ Mr. CrossmanThe Government have future policy on family support under continuous study. I have no statement to make at this stage.
§ Mr. BarnesIn view of the fact that the unpopularity of the system of family allowances makes increases difficult, and because of the difficulties which the Chancellor has run into this year in extending the claw-back principle, will 24 my right hon. Friend undertake to look much more seriously at negative income tax than has been done so far, not as a cornucopia, as he once called it, but simply as a more efficient method of paying a family allowance to those families who really need one?
§ Mr. CrossmanThere are two ways of looking at it. One, as he says, is as a cornucopia which simply substitutes negative income tax for all rates and taxes and social services, which is administratively impracticable. The second and much narrower way is to make it a substitute for family allowances. The second method has almost as many administrative difficulties as the first.
§ Mr. WorsleyWill the right hon. Gentleman look a little more sympathetically at his hon. Friend's proposition? Is he aware that we have never been given the evidence against this system, and that it would be of value for all the facts to be given to the House?
§ Mr. CrossmanI am sympathetic to this idea. A great deal of research has recently been done into it, some of which was summarised in the White Paper which does refer to negative income tax. I am perfectly prepared to consider the possibility of publishing this information, because it is in the public interest that people should understand this problem.