HC Deb 23 July 1979 vol 971 cc77-82W
Mr. Ernie Roberts

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services, how many (a) one-parent families and (b) two-parent families received family income supplement at the latest available date; in each case what was the average payment; how many received the maximum family income supplement; and how many paid income tax.

Mrs. Chalker

I regret that no information is collected by the Department on the income tax position of individual families in receipt of family income supplement—FIS. Other information requested by the hon. Member is shown in the following table. These estimates are derived from a routine sample survey of FIS beneficiaries. They are, therefore, subject to statistical error.

ESTIMATES OF FAMILIES IN RECEIPT OF FIS IN APRIL 1979 (GREAT BRITAIN)
One-parent families Two-parent families
Numbers of families with FIS awards 37,590 40,020
Numbers of families with maximum FIS awards 2,710 2,370
Average weekly FIS payments £5.49 £4.87

Mr. Ernie Roberts

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many one-parent families who work less than 30 hours a week have (a) claimed or (b) received family income supplement and how many in each case previously received some supplementary benefit.

Mrs. Chalker

Lone parents working between 24 and 30 hours a week became eligible to claim family income supplement—FIS—for the first time on 3 April 1979. Between then and 13 July 1979—the latest date for which figures are available—3,297 claims from lone parent claimants working less than 30 hours per week were processed by the Department and a total of 2,047 FIS awards were made to them. I regret that there is no information available to show whether these FIS beneficiaries had previously been in receipt of supplementary benefit.

Mr. Ernie Roberts

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether a child minder is prevented from claiming family income supplement on the grounds that child minding is not remunerative full-time employment.

Mrs. Chalker

The Supplementary Benefits Commission, which is responsible for deciding individual claims for family income supplement—FIS—does not normally regard child minders as satisfying the remunerative full-time work condition of eligibility for FIS. This complements the normal eligibility of the child minders concerned for supplementary benefit which enables more generous provision to be made to them than would be possible in the FIS scheme.

Mr. Field

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the eligibility rates for the family income supplement as a percentage (a) gross and (b) net average earnings for a one, two and four-child family for each year since the schemes's inception.

Mr. Prentice,

pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 21 June 1979], gave the following answer:

On the assumption that, in referring to "eligibility rates" the hon. Member has in mind the prescribed amounts of gross earnings below which family income supplement is payable, the following tables show the relationship between the prescribed amounts and the average earnings of all male employees.

FAMILY INCOME SUPPLEMENT (FIS) PRESCRIBED AMOUNTS (PA) AS A PERCENTAGE OF GROSS AVERAGE EARNINGS OF ALL MALE EMPLOYEES
Date of FIS uprating One-child family Two-child family Four-child family
Gross earnings PA Per cent. PA Per cent. PA Per cent.
£ £ £ £
31 August 1971 … 34.20 18.00 52.6 20.00 58.5 24.00 70.2
4 April 1972 … 36.70 20.00 54.5 22.00 59.9 26.00 70.8
3 April 1973 … 41.90 21.00 50.1 23.50 56.1 28.50 68.0
2 October 1973 … 44.30 21.50 48.5 24.00 54.2 29.00 65.5
23 July 1974 … 50.60 25.00 49.4 28.00 55.3 34.00 67.2
22 July 1975 … 64.90 31.50 48.5 35.00 53.9 42.00 64.7
20 July 1976 … 73.90 39.00 52.8 43.50 58.9 52.50 71.0
5 April 1977 … 78.60 39.00 49.6 42.50 54.1 49.50 63.0
19 July 1977 … 79.70 41.50 52.1 45.00 56.5 52.00 65.2
15 November 1977 … 83.30 43.80 52.6 47.80 57.4 55.80 67.0
14 November 1978 … 95.50 46.00 48.2 50.00 52.4 58.00 60.7

FAMILY INCOME SUPPLEMENT PRESCRIBED AMOUNTS (PA) AS A PERCENTAGE OF NET AVERAGE EARNINGS OF ALL MALE EMPLOYEES
One-child family Two-child family Four-child family
Date of FIS uprating Gross earnings Net earnings PA Per cent. Net earnings PA Per cent. Net earnings PA Per cent.
£ £ £ £ £ £ £
31 August 1971 … … 34.20 26.81 18.00 67.1 27.38 20.00 73.0 29.02 24.00 82.7
4 April 1972 … … 36.70 29.16 20.00 68.6 29.73 22.00 74.0 31.37 26.00 82.9
3 April 1973 … … 41.90 32.53 21.00 64.6 33.07 23.50 71.1 34.66 28.50 82.2
2 October 1973 … … 44.30 34.02 21.50 63.2 34.56 24.00 69.4 36.15 29.00 80.2
23 July 1974 … … 50.60 38.00 25.00 65.8 38.90 28.00 72.0 41.26 34.00 82.4
22 July 1975 … … 64.90 46.66 31.50 67.5 47.40 35.00 73.8 49.55 42.00 84.8
20 July 1976 … … 73.90 53.11 39.00 73.4 54.25 43.50 80.2 57.21 52.50 91.8
5 April 1977 … … 78.60 58.15 39.00 67.1 59.26 42.50 71.7 62.14 49.50 79.7
19 July 1977 … … 79.70 58.82 41.50 70.6 59.93 45.00 75.1 62.81 52.00 82.8
15 November 1977 … … 83.30 60.98 43.80 71.8 62.09 47.80 77.0 64.97 55.80 85.9
14 November 1978 … … 95.50 69.30 46.00 66.4 69.94 50.00 71.5 71.84 58.00 80.7

Notes on the Tables

Derivation of earnings figures

1. The fundamental source of the average weekly gross earnings shown above is the new earnings survey estimates of the average weekly gross earnings of full time adult male employees in all occupations—manual and non-manual—in April each year.

2. With the exception of the earnings figures for November 1978, figures for months other than April have been interpolated from April figures by using the monthly index of average earnings.

3. The earnings figures for November 1978 have been obtained by updating the April 1978 new earnings survey estimate, taking account of movements in a centred three-month moving average of the whole economy index of average earnings as published by the Department of Employment.

Treatment of family allowances and child benefit

4. The family allowances payable for the second and subsequent children in families until April 1977 have not been included in the gross earnings figures for the two and four-child families. As they were taxable, however, the tax deducted from gross earnings to arrive at net earnings includes the tax payable on family allowances.

5. The child benefit payable for every child since April 1977 is not taxable and has not therefore been taken into account.

Assumptions on ages of the children

6. The assumptions made on the ages of the children were

One-child family … … age 3
Two-child family … … ages 4 and 6
Four-child family … … ages 3, 8, 11 and 16