§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, further to his reply to the hon. Member for Norfolk North, Official Report, 29 January, column 606, how he measures the gap between supplementary entitlement levels and the net earnings of the lower paid; and if he will publish figures showing how this gap has altered during the past five years.
§ Mr. Prentice[pursuant to the reply, 12 February 1980, c. 630]: My right hon. Friend has available to him information such as that in chapter 3 of the Supplementary Benefits Commission's annual report for 1978 and the regular illustrative calculations of income in and out of work from which a number of answers to my hon. Friend's questions have been prepared for example on 30 November 1978 and 7 November 1979. It includes the accompanying table comparing total income support on supplementary benefit and that obtainable by men with earnings at the lowest decile, using assumptions as to housing costs, work expenses, etc., with which my hon. Friend will be familiar. As I regularly remind him, illustrative examples such as these need using with caution.
407W
TOTAL INCOME SUPPORT ON SUPPLEMENTARY BENEFIT AND ON LOW EARNINGS (LOWEST DECILE) November 1975 November 1976 November 1977 November 1978 November 1979 (a) Earnings (b) SB (a) Earnings (b) SB (a) Earnings (b) SB (a) Earnings (b) SB (a) Earnings (b) SB Family constitution (b) as percentage of (a) (b) as percentage of (a) (b) as percentage of (a) (b) as percentage of (a) (b) as percentage of (a) Married couple 25.52 17.75 28.48 20.65 32.45 23.55 37.24 25.25 45.12 29.70 69.6 72.5 72.6 67.8 65.8 Married couples with two children aged 4 and 6. 30.77 25.95 35.29 30.02 41.29 34.66 46.67 37.15 55.79 44.65 84.3 85.1 83.9 79.6 79.9 Married couple with four children aged 3, 8, 11 and 16. 37.59 38.75 45.06 44.67 52.96 52.16 59.17 55.75 69.21 66.60 103.1 99.1 98.5 94.2 96.2 Notes:
Total income support for earners comprises:
Gross earnings plus child benefit plus family income supplement plus rent and rates rebate plus free school meals plus free welfare milk minus tax, National Insurance contributions, gross rent and rates and work expenses.
Total income support on supplementary benefit comprises:
Scale rates plus free school meals plus free welfare milk. For 1979 the standard heating addition for children under 5 is included.
Gross earnings have been derived from the New Earnings Survey with interpolation and extrapolation based on movements in the Department of Employment's monthly indices of average earnings. The figure used for 1979 is provisional.
408W409W
§ Mr. Peter Bottomleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the value of child support for a family of two adults and two children under 11 years paying tax at the standard rate in 1980 money after the Budget proposals, as a percentage of the married couple's retirement pension, and as an index number using 1980 as 100 for each year since the family allowance was introduced.
§ Mr. Prentice[pursuant to his reply, 31 March, 1980]; On the assumption that for past years child support is taken as the value to a basic rate taxpayer of child tax allowances and family allowance/child benefit and on the hypothesis that in asking for the value to be expressed in 1980 prices my hon. Friend has November 1980 prices in mind, the following is the information:—
April 1980 Child support as a percentage of married couple's retirement pension Value of child support as an index (November 1980=100)* July 1948† … … 57.1 112.0 April 1950 … … 57.1 106.1 April 1955 … … 58.5 130.4 April 1960 … … 44.3 105.4 April 1964 … … 36.5 104.8 April 1965 … … 32.3 104.8 April 1966 … … 32.3 101.2 April 1967 … … 32.3 98.2 April 1968 … … 28.1 91.8 April 1969 … … 28.8 89.2 April 1970 … … 25.9 89.4 April 1971 … … 32.5 96.6 April 1972 … … 27.1 90.8 April 1973 … … 25.8 81.9 April 1974 … … 26.6 91.2 April 1975 … … 20.9 87.2 April 1976 … … 22.0 88.5 April 1977 … … 20.0 79.1 April 1978 … … 21.0 87.9 November 1978 … 23.3 104.6 April 1979 … … 25.6 108.8 November 1980 … 21.9 100.0 * Based on estimated increase of 16½ per cent. in General Index of Retail Prices between November 1979 and November 1980. † Retirement pension introduced in 1948.