§ 28. Mr. Norman Lamontasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will now publish the rules governing the activities of investigators of his Department inquiring into abuse of welfare benefits by cohabiting women, in view of the fact that purported extracts from those rules were published in the Spectator of 17th June, 1972.
§ Sir K. JosephNo, Sir. The extracts were incomplete, and I deplore their publication. I do not intend to make it any easier to avoid detection by more extensive publication.
§ Mr. LamontSince my right hon. Friend's Department invariably accepts the verdicts of its inspectors, and since those verdicts are often successfully appealed against, should not those whose lives are being investigated know the criteria upon which those verdicts are arrived at?
§ Sir K. JosephThis is a difficult area. I have been worried by one or two cases of which there have been reports recently. While some people may be subject to unfair deprivation of help from the Supplementary Benefits Commission, there is no doubt that there is quite a measure of abuse in these matters. I have to try to reconcile the public and the personal interest and I have to make sure, with the Chairman of the Commission who is responsible in the first case, that the procedures are being carried out precisely.