§ Mr. Pardoeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will estimate the cost in a full year of allowing widowed mothers, with children, who marry again to continue to receive the widowed mother's allowance for their own children until such time as they reach the age of majority; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. O'MalleyThe estimated cost in a full year would ultimately be £13 million at the current benefit rates. We do not think that expenditure of this order on the continuation of a child dependency benefit after the mother has remarried could be justified when there are so many other competing claims on available resources.