§ 5. Mr. Boyd-Carpenterasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will now make a statement about his proposals for improvements in family allowances.
§ 28. Mr. Barnesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what plans he now has to increase family allowances.
§ Sir K. JosephOur immediate proposals for helping poor families with children are contained in the Family Income Supplements Bill, which the House is to debate this afternoon.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterWill my right hon. Friend at least assure us that the use of the family allowance instrument as a means of helping families with young children is not excluded from his thinking as his social policy develops?
§ Sir K. JosephI can give my right hon. Friend that assurance. I hope to explain this afternoon why we chose a family income supplement for the first step.
§ Mr. BarnesDoes the right hon. Gentleman accept the reasons given by the Chancellor for not introducing increased family allowances with claw-back? Does not he agree that that could perfectly well have been done if the Chancellor had been prepared to give a higher priority to raising the threshold at which people start to pay income tax, rather than taking 6d. off?
§ Sir K. JosephYes, Sir—that is technically possible. I shall try to develop the arguments about this subject later this afternoon.