HC Deb 11 April 1972 vol 834 cc1009-11
9. Mr. Strang

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the latest estimate of the rate of take-up for the family income supplement.

Sir K. Joseph

At the end of March, about 75 per cent. of those entitled to £2 or more were in receipt of the benefit, 50 per cent. of those entitled to between £1 and £2 and 30 per cent, of those entitled to under £1. So the overall rate of take-up was about half. Detailed figures for April are not yet available, but I estimate that the overall rate of take-up remains the same.

Mr. Strang

Is the Minister aware that it is now almost a year since the Government introduced what many of us regard as a degrading method of alleviating family poverty? Do not these figures make it clear that it has been an absolute failure and that the Government would have done far better to increase family allowances and to make them payable for the first child?

Sir K. Joseph

If we had followed that course, the families who are now benefit-ting, those with one child, would probably not yet be receiving any improved benefits. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman wants to be fair. How can he regard this as a failure when 75 per cent. of those entitled to more than £2 are receiving not only that benefit but a whole range of other benefits automatic- ally, on the passport system? This whole family income supplement was presented as an immediate first aid and is now possibly likely, subject to the opinion of the House and decision of the Government, to be overtaken by the tax credit scheme which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor proposed in his Budget.

Dame Irene Ward

Would my right hon. Friend suggest to the Opposition that all these Questions are due to jealousy and because they had not got the guts to do what the present Government have done, for which we are all very grateful?

Sir K. Joseph

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. It would be slightly more convincing if the Opposition had shown any capacity to match their deeds to their words.

Mr. James Hamilton

Would the right hon. Gentleman disregard what was said by the hon. Lady the Member for Tyne-mouth (Dame Irene Ward)?

Dame Irene Ward

He will not.

Mr. Hamilton

It is not a case of jealousy but one of disillusionment, particularly in Scotland, where we have heavy unemployment. Many of the people there are not accepting or not applying for family income supplement because they feel that they have been misinformed. Will the right hon. Gentleman now keep his election pledge and give an increased family allowance, as his party, prior to the General Election, said they would do?

Sir K. Joseph

We have several times debated the reasons why the Government prefered this method coupled with the sharp raising, on two separate occasions, of the tax threshold, which had been left so calamitously low under the previous Labour Government, to any increase in family allowances.

14. Mr. Edwin Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the latest figure for successful applications for family income supplement in the Yorkshire and Humberside departmental region.

Mr. Dean

About 11,000, excluding second claims from families whose first awards have come to an end.

Mr. Wainwright

Throughout the Yorkshire and Humberside region the average wage is far lower than in the rest of the country. Is the Under-Secretary not surprised that the figure is only 11,000? What is he doing to see that everyone who qualifies for the family income supplement applies for it? Can he say why the workers on short time at the G.E.C. works at Swinton, near Mexborough, have even been refused an application form for family income supplement, although their wages are below £12 a week?

Mr. Dean

I will look at the last point, but I cannot give an answer off the cuff. The figures which I gave referred to the period before the uprating of the family income supplement and we have already had a substantial number of new claims since the beginning of this month, so that the figure will go up. But about 30 per cent. of the awards in the region are to one-parent families, and this is a considerable help to them. The average weekly payment in the region at the end of March was £1.62, again a substantial help to those who qualify.

Mr. Meacher

The Secretary of State's acclaimed figure of 75 per cent. take-up applies to only about 30,000 families, which is an extremely small number. Increase in the take-up of family income supplement has virtually stopped and virtually none of those families has been brought up to the State poverty line.

Mr. Dean

The take-up figures for those receiving the larger amounts, and therefore those in greatest need, is about 75 per cent., which is a very good figure. We are hoping to improve it all the time. Equally, the up rating of the F.I.S. by £1 which came into operation at the beginning of this month is bringing more people in, but we are having a further publicity campaign to ensure that all those who are eligible for the allowance get it.