One-parent Families (Hansard, 26 October 1977)

§ Mr. Orme

The Finer Committee's recommendations concern various Government Departments and bodies such as local authorities and voluntary organisations. The information below relates to the recommendations, numbered as in part 9 of the Finer Report, which touch on the work of my Department.

Action has been taken to implement the following recommendations: 5. (part) The Supplementary Benefits Commission's policy of encouraging women to take maintenance proceedings has been abandoned in favour of a policy of explanation. 56.Statistical data relating to one-parent families receiving supplementary benefit is now published annually in Social Security Statistics. 57.Much demographic data for Great Britain is available and has been published; its improvement is a continuous process. 119. Lone parents under 18 receiving supplementary benefit in their own right who are not householders now receive automatically the full adult non-householder scale rate. 121.Supplementary benefit disregards were increased generally in November 1975. The part-time earnings disregard was further increased for one-parent families exclusively—from £4 to £6—in November 1976. 122.Lone fathers with sole care of dependent children under 16 living with them and receiving supplementary benefit are no longer required to register for work. 126. The phasing in of tax-free child benefit and a three-stage programme for the abolition of child tax allowances for children under age 11 and the progressive reduction of child tax allowances for older children began in April 1977. 157. When considering the amount of rent which can be accepted as reasonable the Supplementary Benefits Commission gives special consideration to the difficulties of one-parent families in finding accommodation. 159 to 161. Rent is paid direct to the landlord more readily when the householder is receiving supplementary benefit and is experiencing difficulty in paying the rent. 170. The Supplementary Benefits Commission takes the initiative in advising claimants with mortgage liabilities that the building society might accept payment of interest only. 174. When claims for exceptional needs payments are being considered, the Supplementary Benefits Commission takes account of the special difficulties of one-parent families in finding a home. 195, 196, 201, 205, 228 to 230. These recommendations on the personal social services are generally in line with the Government's own views.

740W

Two further recommendations have been accepted in principle: 55. The Registrar General is reviewing sources of information about changes in the field of one-parent families between censuses and the problems of bringing estimates derived from the census up to date are to be the subject of an article in Population Trends. 125. A reduction in the hours of work rule for lone parents claiming family income supplement from 30 hours a week to 24 will be considered when additional resources become available.

Recommendations 188 to 194, 197 to 200, 203, 204, 206 to 210, 212, 213, 221 to 223 and 226 are also generally in line with Government thinking. They are mainly for action by local authorities and voluntary bodies. Much has been done already; further progress will depend on the availability of manpower and financial resources.

Two recommendations are still being considered—numbers 120 and 227.

Recommendations 3, 4, 5 (part), 6 to 25 all of which flow from recommendation 4 on administrative orders, 64 to 117 all of which relate to guaranteed maintenance allowance, 118, 123, 124, 127, 158 and 171 have been rejected.

Government assistance to one-parent families over the past three and a half years has included the implementation of the Finer recommendations of which details are given above. In the field of family income support, the Government have given priority to two broad programmes—the introduction of the child benefit scheme and the regular uprating of social security benefits so as to maintain and improve their real value.

Family allowances were raised in April 1975; and in April 1976, as an advance instalment of the child benefit scheme, child interim benefit was introduced for 250,000 lone parents not on social security benefits. From April 1977, these one-parent families have kept their lead in the form of an extra 50p child benefit increase. This increase will be doubled to £1 in April 1978 when child benefit will be payable at a flat rate of £2.30 for all children.

Following next month's uprating, widowed mother's allowance, family income supplement, supplementary benefit and other benefits going to one-parent families will be running at a level of over £760 million a year, which will be £490 million higher than the comparable figure 741W for February 1974, when this Government took office.