§ 5. Mr. Tony McNulty (Harrow, East)What action the Government have taken to improve support for children through the social security system. [47472]
§ The Secretary of State for Social Security and Minister for Women (Ms Harriet Harman)Our commitment to support families and children is central to our policies to modernise the welfare state. We will increase benefits for all families with children by increasing child benefit for the oldest child by £2.50. We are increasing benefits for children in the poorest families by increasing the child allowance on income-related benefits by £2.50 from November. We are ensuring that parents can work, and that work pays.
§ Mr. McNultyI thank my right hon. Friend. Does she agree that the new Labour Government have done more in the past year to help children through the social security system than the Conservatives ever did? Given their record and policies, which caused so much neglect and abject poverty for children, rather than sneering at our policies, should not they hang their heads in shame?
§ Ms HarmanI welcome my hon. Friend's points. We have not only taken action to give extra benefits to the families with the poorest children but, above all, by helping their parents into work, we are helping such children to become better off than they could ever be in workless households.
§ Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire)In that case, will the Secretary of State assure us that she has no plans to abolish child benefit for 17 and 18-year-olds still in full-time education?
§ Ms HarmanWe have said that child benefit for those over 16 will be subject to review. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor said that before the general election. He has expressed his commitment to child benefit and increased it. He has said that we want to do even more and that we are going to make it fairer by clawing it back from higher-rate taxpayers.
§ Mr. Malcolm Wicks (Croydon, North)Given that disproportionate numbers of our poorest citizens are children under five, will the Department consider reviewing the pros and cons of introducing an under-fives child benefit premium? That would not only target poverty without a means test, but give parents of children under five a proper choice about whether to seek employment in the labour market or stay at home to look after their children.
§ Ms HarmanAs ever, my hon. Friend raises an important point. It was always an assumption and a principle of benefit policy that as children get older, they get more expensive and therefore their benefit should be increased. It is also evident that some of the poorest children have been young children in poor families. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor took a step towards sorting this out when he introduced the premium for children in workless families under 11, on the basis of the Joseph Rowntree research report. My hon. Friend made a further point about the problems of children under five. We will carefully examine poverty among young children.