HL Deb 12 June 1978 vol 393 cc4-6

2.42 p.m.

Baroness VICKERS

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why under their proposals 200,000 lone parents on supplementary benefit will be given 60p less to keep their young first child than other families.

Lord WELLS-PESTELL

My Lords, it has always been the case that the amount of supplementary benefit paid to a family has to be adjusted to take into account increases in National Insurance benefits and child benefit.

Baroness VICKERS

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that reply. Does he recognise the fact that the Finer Report four years ago recommended that £2 over and above the supplementary benefit should be paid to the lone parent? Why has the Finer recommendation not been carried out?

Lord WELLS-PESTELL

My Lords, it is misleading to talk of any families losing benefit when the child benefit is increased, for the simple reason that the Supplementary Benefits Commission is bound to take into account the needs of a family. Perhaps I should point out that for the ordinary family including two parents the child benefit in relation to the first child is £3 but in the case of a lone parent it is £5—there is an extra £2—and £3 a week for each subsequent child, the same as in a family with two parents. In a sense, therefore, there is, and has been for some considerable time, a special benefit for the first child so far as the lone parent is concerned. The reply to the noble Baroness's question about the Finer Report is that it is very much in the forefront of the Government's mind, but it would he quite costly to implement.

Baroness VICKERS

My Lords, is the Minister able to say how much lone parents are actually losing? Are they really losing 60p per week?

Lord WELLS-PESTELL

My Lords, it is misleading to say they are losing money; they are not losing money. It applies only to lone parents who are in receipt of supplementary benefit, and there is an obligation on the Supplementary Benefits Commission to provide what a family needs. It is true that a lone parent at work will be getting the full £5 a week, but that the lone parent who is on supplementary benefit will still get whatever he or she needs for the family's support as a whole.

Lord BANKS

My Lords, can the noble Lord say why similar treatment is not meted out to those on National Insurance unemployment and sickness benefit? And will the Government consider increasing the child rates of supplementary benefit so that the lowest is at least as much as the highest rate of child benefit?

Lord WELLS-PESTELL

My Lords, we are aware that what the noble Lord and the noble Baroness have said causes some concern, and we are studying the situation very carefully in the context of a review of the supplementary benefits scheme, but at this stage I cannot say more than that.