§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services when the present level of maternity grant was fixed; to what figure it would now have to be raised to keep in line with the cost of living; and what would be the cost of so raising it.
§ Mr. OrmeThe maternity grant was raised to its present level of £25 in November 1969. It would have to be increased to £68.50 to restore the 1969 value. The additional cost would be £26 million a year.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the net cost of paying maternity allowance on the husband's national insurance contributions.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the cost of making maternity grant a noncontributory benefit to girls under 16 years.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report the total maternity benefits available to (a) a working wife, (b) a working, unmarried woman, (c) an unemployed wife and (d) an unemployed, unmarried woman.
§ Mr. OrmeMaternity grant and maternity allowance are available under the national insurance scheme to all women who satisfy the contribution conditions. These require the payment of a certain number of contributions in any one tax year, and for a certain number of contributions to have been paid or credited—for weeks of incapacity or unemployment—in a recent specified year. The grant, £25, is payable, on contributions of any class, on either the woman's record or her husband's. The allowance consists of a standard rate of £14.70 for 18 weeks to which may be added an earnings-related supplement of up to a maximum of £15.42. It is payable only on the woman's record as an employed or self-employed contributor. The voluntary (Class 3) contributions and the reduced-rate contributions paid by some married women do not count for the allowance. Contributions as a self-employed person do not count for the earnings-related supplement.