§ 39. Mr. Bruce-Gardyneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what has been the cost to public funds to date of supplementary benefits to the families of persons involved in the Post Office strike.
§ Mr. Bruce-Gardyneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps the officials of his Department are taking to ensure that supplementary benefit is not drawn by any Post Office employee involved in the postal strike who has a secondary, undeclared, tax free, part-time occupation.
§ Mr. DeanAll persons claiming supplementary benefit whether on strike or not are questioned closely about their resources, and claim forms contain a warning that any person making a false statement may be prosecuted. Where it is82W suspected that a claimant has failed to disclose all his resources, further inquiries may be made.
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how the entitlement of a striker to supplementary benefit is calculated when his wife is also on strike.
§ Mr. DeanA person to whom the disqualification in Section 10 of the Ministry of Social Security Act applies is not entitled to supplementary benefit for his own requirements, but he can receive benefit for his dependants. A husband and wife, both of whom were disqualified, would not receive any benefit for themselves, but if they had a child benefit would be payable for that child and an addition for family rent would be made in the assessment.
§ 91. Mr. Scott-Hopkinsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the total payment of social security benefit to unofficial strikers for the period July to December, 1970.
§ Mr. DeanSupplementary benefit payments during disputes to the dependants of persons disqualified on account of the dispute from receiving benefit for themselves totalled £884,969 in the period July-December, 1970. The statistics do not distinguish between official and unofficial disputes.
§ 90. Mr. Scott-Hopkinsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to abolish the social security payments made specifically to the employee whilst on unofficial strike.
§ Mr. DeanI assume my hon. Friend has in mind the supplementary benefit which can be paid in certain circumstances to persons involved in trade disputes who are disqualified from receiving benefit for their personal requirements. It would not be right to abolish this power to prevent hardship in exceptional cases, but payments are very few in number and restricted to cases of great urgency.
§ Mr. John Pageasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what amount has been paid out per week in supplementary benefit, to how many recipients per area, and at what administrative cost, to employees of the Ford Motor Company during the present dispute.
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§ Mr. DeanFigures are so far only available for the week (to 16th February) in which the first supplementary benefit payments for the dependants of persons involved in the Ford dispute were made. Details are as follows:
Area Amount Paid Number of Payments £ London 25,471 4,463 Liverpool 19,174 4,360 Wales and SouthWest 3,358 620 Midlands 2,018 480 In addition, two discretionary payments totalling £6 have been made to persons involved in the dispute for their own requirements.
I regret that administrative costs are not at present known.
§ Mr. John Pageasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what amount has been paid out per week in supplementary benefit, to how many recipients, and at what administrative cost, to employees of the Post Office during the present dispute.
§ Mr. DeanSupplementary benefit was paid for the dependants of postal workers on account of the current dispute as follows:
Week Ending Amount Paid Number of Payments £ 26th January 293,759 40,110 2nd February 379,405 53,767 9th February 413,583 56,654 16th February 460,807 59,845 In addition, 720 discretionary payments were made to persons disqualified for receiving benefit for their personal requirements, at a total cost of £2,200.
I regret that administrative costs are not at present known.
§ Mr. Bruce-Gardyneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the progress of the Government's review of the payment of supplementary benefit in industrial disputes.
§ Sir K. JosephNo. But I hope to make an announcement before long.