CHILD BENEFIT (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1975 (Hansard, 28 October 1975)

§ Lord DONALDSON of KINGSBRIDGE
My Lords, I beg to move that the Child Benefit (Northern Ireland) Order 1975, laid before the House on 13th October, be approved. My Lords, the Order has been made under paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Northern Ireland Act 1974, which empowers Her Majesty by Order in Council to make laws for Northern Ireland during the interim period within the meaning of that Act. By reason of urgency the Order has been made without a draft having been approved by a Resolution of each House of Parliament. The Order, if it is to 240 continue to have effect, must now be approved.
The Order enacts for Northern Ireland provisions corresponding to those of the Child Benefit Act 1975. It therefore abolishes family allowances, and introduces child benefit, a cash benefit which, unlike family allowances, will be payable for every child. Child benefit will also progressively replace the present tax relief given for children. Regulations will prescribe the weekly rate of child benefit and different rates may be prescribed in different cases. Payment of child benefit will begin on a day—expected to be in April 1977—appointed by the Department of Health and Social Services for Northern Ireland. This will be the same as the appointed day in Great Britain. The Order provides that before the appointed day for child benefit, and beginning on a date to be specified by the Department of Health and Social Services for Northern Ireland, an interim benefit will be payable to the heads of one-parent families at the rate specified under the Family Allowances Act for one child, at present £1.50 per week.
The Order in effect extends the benefit of family allowances to the first or only child in these families for this interim period. We expect that the operational date will be in April 1976. This child interim benefit, as it is termed, will thus be payable for one year: from April 1976 to April 1977. The Order also provides for the abolition of the supplementary benefits wage stop in Northern Ireland in line with the abolition of the wage stop under the Great Britain Act.
The Order maintains the principle that there should be exact parity between cash social services in Northern Ireland and those in Great Britain. For all intents and purposes, therefore, the content of the Order is the same as that of the Child Benefit Act 1975. It is further intended that the Order and the Great Britain Act will come into operation on the same dates. The Order was made under the "urgent procedure" without a draft having been approved so as to enable the necessary administrative arrangements to proceed step by step with the arrangements in Great Britain. Noble Lords will no doubt appreciate that a considerable amount of preparatory work is necessary in anticipation of the implementation of the legislation.
241 As your Lordships are already familiar with the details of the corresponding legislation enacted for Great Britain, and as this Order virtually reproduces similar legislation for Northern Ireland, I do not propose to go through the Order Article by Article. However, I feel that I should draw attention to its main provisions. Part I of the Order is general and relates to title, commencement and general interpretation. Part II of the Order provides for child benefit to be paid to a person for any child for whom he is responsible and contains definitions of both "child" and "person responsible. "It enables regulations to prescribe circumstances in which child benefit will not be payable and specifies exclusion from title. Where there is more than one claimant rules for deciding priority are set out. It is provided that child benefit shall be payable at such weekly rate as may be prescribed in regulations. The treatment of polygamous marriages will also be covered by regulations. This Part also makes provision in the case of persons who have been absent from Northern Ireland, and specifies the standard requirements as to presence in Northern Ireland, which must be satisfied for an allowance to be payable.
Part III makes provision for child interim benefit to be payable to the heads of one-parent families for a period beginning with a day to be specified by the Department of Health and Social Services for Northern Ireland and ending immediately before the appointed day for child benefit. Part III also provides for the discontinuance of the wage stop provision in the Supplementary Benefits Scheme. This provision restricted the amount of supplementary benefit to the amount of the net weekly earnings which a person would receive if he were engaged in full-time work in his normal occupation. Part IV is general and contains provisions of a supplemental nature. The Child Benefit Order, unlike much social security legislation, is reasonably intelligible to the non-expert and the provisions which it contains are largely self-explanatory. I hope that this short explanation will give noble Lords an adequate outline of the main provisions of the Order. As I mentioned earlier, it maintains the principle that there should be exact parity between cash social services in Northern Ireland and those in Great 242 Britain. My Lords, I beg to move that the Order be approved.

§ Lord BELSTEAD
My Lords, I support this Order and, as with the previous Order, I do not question the fact that the urgent procedure needed to be used in this case. It is particularly necessary that this Order should be agreed and be effective in Northern Ireland, where unemployment continues at a very high rate. I take the opportunity to ask the noble Lord whether he has an up-to-date figure to give to the House this evening of the unemployment rate in Northern Ireland at the present time. I welcome the fact that the child benefit is to be paid to the wife. This is something which we on this side of the House have always thought would be right, and the Government have indeed implemented it. It would, of course, be naïve to believe that child benefit will not be misappropriated in certain families still, but in principle I am sure that this is a step forward.

§ Lord DONALDSON of KINGSBRIDGE
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his reception of this Order and for giving me notice of the question he was going to ask, which I can now answer fairly fully. The current unemployment rate of all employees is 9.8 per cent. in the Northern Ireland Province. Of all male employees it is 11.2 per cent.; of all female employees, 7.7 per cent. If school-leavers are excluded the overall figure of 9.8 per cent. comes down to 8.5 per cent. The school-leavers number something under 1 per cent. and adult students about one-half of 1 per cent. I think that is about as detailed an answer as the noble Lord expected.

§ Lord JACQUES
My Lords, I beg to move that the House do now adjourn during pleasure until 7.45 p.m.