§ 14. Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what recent representations he has received on the uprating of child benefit; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ScottWe have received a number of representations from hon. Members, organisations and individuals expressing a wide variety of views.
§ Mr. MorganWill the Minister persuade the Secretary of State for Social Security and the Prime Minister that, following the Government's U-turn on capital allowances in respect of poll tax, they should take another look at child benefit? Does not the Minister agree that the most cynical form of attack on the incomes of ordinary families is to allow child benefit to wither on the vine? The Government do not have the guts to abolish it altogether, and realise that its value should stay in line with purchasing power and be uprated each year. Will the Minister inform his ministerial colleagues that the 7.6 million families who receive child benefit know, like the lone parents to whom the previous question referred, that it is free of any stigma—which is why it is so important to the mothers of this country?
§ Mr. ScottThere is no policy of allowing child benefit to wither on the vine. My right hon. Friend the Secretary 886 of State has a duty, year by year, to review that benefit in the light of several factors. In recent years, we decided to concentrate help on less well-off families, poorer pensioners and the long-term sick and disabled, rather than uprate child benefit.