HC Deb 25 May 1971 vol 818 cc215-7
16. Mr. David Clark

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will withdraw poster reference number; Dd 820925 3/71 issued by his Departent, in view of the misleading nature of the statistics contained therein.

23. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, in view of the fact that some of the figures used in his advertisements about means-tested welfare services are misleading and causing concern, he will withdraw such advertisements and replace them with more accurate versions.

Mr. Dean

I do not agree that the advertisements were misleading. The object was to encourage as many people as possible to claim. For this reason, as the advertisements clearly state, gross; income figures were used, and approximations were used for the scales for children and for rent, even though this inevitably meant that a small number of people would be disappointed when, on making a claim, they gave exact details.

Mr. Clark

I very much regret what the Minister has said. Does he realise that thousands of people are earning £2 or £3 a week less than the figures quoted in the document? Does he not accept that it is extremely callous to build up people's hopes and then dash them in the way that he has done?

Mr. Dean

No, Sir. The figures prove quite the contrary. For example, the average awards for welfare foods and milk before the take-up campaign started were 29 a week. They are now averaging over 11,000 a week.

Mr. Hamilton

Can the hon. Gentleman say how many have applied and been rejected, which is the meaningful figure? Does he not realise that the figures in the advertisement were so misleading as to qualify for a Tory Party Central Office hand-out? It was very fortuitous that it was issued just before the local elections, with calamitous results for the Tory Party.

Mr. Dean

I do not accept what the hon. Gentleman has said. The figures I have given show the substantial success of the take-up campaign. It is certainly the case that not everyone who applies is granted an award. I cannot give the hon. Gentleman the precise proportion, because some of the applications are still being processed, but it is substantially over 50 per cent.

Mr. Hugh D. Brown

I recognise the genuine desire to encourage the maximum number of people to make the claim, but does not the hon. Gentleman think the position needs to be reviewed, especially leaflet FB/11, in which the section dealing with free optical and dental treatment has a discrepancy of about 30 to 40 per cent., which is too high a margin even to achieve the Government's objectives?

Mr. Dean

We are always prepared to look at leaflets in the light of experience, but I think I can still fairly claim that the results of the take-up campaign so far have been immensely encouraging.