Heads of Households (Work Incentives)

HC Deb 26 February 1981 vol 999 cc968-9

Q1. Mr. Peter Bottomley

asked the Prime Minister what progress is being made in increasing incentives to work for heads of households.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. William Whitelaw)

I have been asked to reply.

Considerable progress has already been made within the resources available. However, it must be recognised that the only way to improve incentives in the long term is to control inflation, ensure rising living standards and establish sustained growth. Our policies aim at just that.

Mr. Bottomley

Does my right hon. Friend agree that increasing child benefit will make a great deal of difference? I am grateful for his answer. Is it not odd that as a country collectively we go for pay claims when, if all are granted, conditions will be made worse for us all and there will be more inflation, more unemployment and greater hardship for people who look after children?

Mr. Whitelaw

I entirely agree. Comparisons are made between different sectors of the economy facing different problems and one is entitled to say that some people will get more, some will get less and, I regret, some will get nothing at all.

Mr. Richard Wainwright

In the light of the right hon. Gentleman's reply, how much longer will the Government tolerate a head of household being worse off earning £85 a week gross than one earning £40 a week gross?

Mr. Whitelaw

These matters will be carefully considered by the House in the near future.

Mr. Ian Lloyd

Does not the experience of most post-war industrial societies confirm that no incentive scheme long survives double-figure inflation? Will my right hon. Friend therefore suggest to his colleagues that reflation is the most dangerous and seductive word in the economics vocabulary? Does he agree that if reflation takes place, there will be little chance of effective incentive schemes ever again appearing in our economy?

Mr. Whitelaw

I would not like to decide what is the most dangerous word used in contemporary politics. Certainly "reflation" is a dangerous word. But reflation appears to be the Opposition's policy.