Family Credit (Hansard, 28 February 1994)

§ 2. Mr. Hargreaves
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what recent modifications he has made to family credit.

§ 12. Dr. Spink
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the number of families receiving family credit; and how many families were receiving a family income supplement in 1979.

§ 14. Mrs. Roe
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many awards of family credit have been made since the introduction of the scheme.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security (Mr. Alistair Burt)
Three for the price of one, for the sake of brevity.
About £4.5 million of awards of family credit have now been made. In September 1993, 515,000 families were receiving family credit, compared with only 78,000 receiving family income supplement in March 1979. In April, we shall streamline the claims process for the self-employed, which will help 70,000 families, and extend the fast-track claims service to those people just starting self-employed work. From October, we are introducing a child care disregard in the in-work benefits, which will make 150,000 working families better off.

§ Mr. Hargreaves
Can my hon. Friend's reply be interpreted as meaning that we are working, we have worked and we shall continue to work to ensure that those in greatest need receive that benefit?

§ Mr. Burt
Yes, and the benefit will continue to do its job very well.

§ Dr. Spink
Will my hon. Friend confirm that the £40 child care disregard in family credit that is to be introduced in October will help 50,000 families back into work and will help 100,000 families who are already in work?

§ Mr. Burt
Yes, the provision for the child care disregard has been widely welcomed and will indeed help the number of families that my hon. Friend mentioned.

§ Mrs. Roe
Will my hon. Friend confirm that the family credit case load is more than 500,000—the largest ever—and that the number of awards has increased each year since 1988? Does not that confirm the success of the Government's policy of introducing family credit?

§ Mr. Burt
Yes, the Government's success in introducing that policy was welcomed only last week in a report from the Policy Studies Institute, which revealed that family credit was a benefit. The recent changes that we have announced in relation to child care will be popular and will help low-income families still further.

§ Ms Eagle
How can the Minister justify subsidising very low-paying, exploitative employers by using a benefit in that way? Should not we be trying to increase the wages paid by such employers, rather than subsidising them with taxpayers' money?

§ Mr. Burt
The biggest determinant of family credit is the age and number of children, not any variant in the wages paid.