HC Deb 11 May 1970 vol 801 cc805-6
11. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what further steps he has in mind for the alleviation of child poverty.

43. Mr. Fortescue

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he intends to take to alleviate the position of children living in poverty in families where the father is in full-time work, following his investigations into this matter.

Mr. Ennals

It is clear that there remains a problem of child poverty where the father is in full-time work, where our improvements in national insurance and supplementary benefits do not help. We are working on this. But it would be premature to settle future policy before we have the information we are hoping to get shortly about such families from the data collected for the Family Expenditure Survey.

Mr. Hamilton

Does my right hon. Friend recognise that there is a good deal of misunderstanding about the nature and the size of this problem? Therefore, would he consider publishing a White Paper saying what the problem has been and how it has been dealt with over, say, the last 10 years?

Mr. Ennals

We have said this, of course, and I think that the country knows many of the measures which have been taken, including the increases in family allowances and the introduction of rate and rent rebates, which all help the people whom my hon. Friend is concerned about. We must now, I think, see the report of this survey; I will then consider with my right hon. Friend whether any sort of general publication will be helpful.

Mr. Fortescue

Now that discussion of negative income tax is once again respectable, will the hon. Gentleman assure us that, in his consideration of the problem, he will not exclude the possibility of using the negative income tax system solely for low-paid men in full-time employment?

Mr. Ennals

I would not exclude this, because the Government have studied different varieties of negative income tax. On our present examination, all have been found to involve substantial disadvantages which are not compensated for by advantages, and the administrative and staff problems are very heavy. But I am keeping this under review.

Mr. Dean

Does the hon. Gentleman realise that that is a very complacent answer? Does he reject the findings of the Child Poverty Action Group which come from Government-produced figures and suggest very strongly that the poorest section of the community, including children in poverty, is getting worse?

Mr. Ennals

The hon. Gentleman knows that I do not accept those conclusions. I can assure him, as he would have known if he had done his homework, that some of the figures on which the conclusions were based were quite groundless. Comparisons were made with figures which were not comparable, and statistics were used which relate to years past. I do not accept the conclusions of the Child Poverty Action Group.