HC Deb 05 May 1981 vol 4 cc11-3
16. Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement about arrangements for the payments of child benefit.

17. Mr. Hal Miller

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has now reached a decision on the periods applicable to the payment of benefits.

Mr. Patrick Jenkin

I am still considering comments received on the proposals in Cmnd. 8106, but I hope to announce the Government's decisions very shortly.

Mr. Bennett

Cannot the right hon. Gentleman make a statement now guaranteeing that all those who want to draw child benefit weekly will be able to do so? If he cannot, will he give advice to those on supplementary benefit about how they could bridge the four-week gap that will exist if the benefit is to be paid four weekly in arrears?

Mr. Jenkin

The hon. Gentleman is a student of these matters and he knows that the proposals in Cmnd. 8106 provide that those on supplementary benefit will have the option to retain weekly payment. However, I am still considering the many comments raised on the point that the hon. Gentleman has put to me and I shall be announcing my decision shortly.

Mr. Miller

Does my right hon. Friend agree that we should be aiming at widening choice for those in receipt of benefits and that the subject should not be mixed up with the future financial viability of post offices, which is a separate topic and which should be dealt with separately?

Mr. Jenkin

With the best will in the world, I have to say to my hon. Friend that these questions are inevitably linked and I am having to consider them together. While attaching considerable importance to the question of choice, the Government must also have regard to the viability of the sub-post office network, about which we have made some firm commitments. That will certainly be one of the factors that I shall have very much in mind in any announcement that I make.

Mr. Buchan

Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that over the past year or so the number choosing to take benefits weekly has gone up by about one-third, which suggests that there is real need in this area? Did not the Government pledge their support for the principle of freedom in social security and is not the hon. Member for Bromsgrove and Redditch (Mr. Miller) right in saying that choice is the paramount consideration, because people could deal with their own problems in their own way if the Government, with their repressive legislation, would get off their backs?

Mr. Jenkin

The points made by the hon. Gentleman are in my mind, but I cannot accept that, for all time and for all purposes, there should never be any change in the administrative arrangements concerning the payments of social security benefits. That does not make sense, particularly if the system lands the taxpayer generally—and many of those concerned here are taxpayers—with extra and unnecessary costs. We have to hold a balance between what is fair to the taxpayer and what is fair to mothers with children.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

Is my right hon. Friend aware that I support the idea of choice? Can he say how long it would take to make arrangements for people to receive child benefit monthly?

Mrs. Renée Short

That can happen now.

Mr. Jenkin

As the hon. Lady says, anyone who wishes to draw child benefit monthly is free to do so. A surprising number already does so. The new choice that we want to offer, not only to mothers receiving child benefit but to pensioners, is the option to have their benefits paid into their bank account by the modern cash transmission method of automated credit transfer. I hope to be able to offer that option to beneficiaries during the next couple of years.

Mr. Ennals

The Secretary of State has already said that if he were to deny mothers the opportunity, if they want it, to draw their supplementary benefit weekly, he would be denying them freedom of choice. Is he not aware that the Select Committee of which my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, North-East (Mrs. Short) is the chairman strongly recommended that this choice should remain for women who felt that they needed to receive the payment every week?

Mr. Jenkin

That is one of the factors that I have in mind.