§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he has yet concluded his review of the procedures for dealing with unmarried mothers who claim benefit payments; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Chalker[pursuant to her reply, 16 June 1981, c. 328–29]: I have carried out a careful and detailed examination of these procedures following the concern that has been expressed by Ministers and on all sides of the House. I found that, for at least 20 years, questions seeking intimate information of a type needed for legal proceedings had been asked at the stage when arrangements were being made to interview the alleged father. At this point it could not be known whether legal proceedings would be necessary.
These procedures have now been changed. There will be three separate stages of interviewing. In future, detailed information about the mother's relationship with the alleged father will not be sought until the case is actually being prepared for proceedings under section 19 of the Supplementary Benefits Act. This will mean that, after the mother's benefit entitlement has been established, she will be interviewed to obtain only the minimum information needed to enable the allegation of paternity to be put to the alleged father. If he then denies paternity, or refuses to maintain the child, and as a result proceedings seem appropriate, the mother will be interviewed again and a written statement with the detailed information will be obtained.
Section 19 proceedings are affiliation proceedings and, as in all affiliation proceedings, paternity has to be proved to the satisfaction of the courts. A comprehensive statement of the evidence of the mother is, therefore, needed when a case is being prepared for proceedings. The information we ask for must necessarily be detailed and personal—it is the sort of information that a private solicitor would require if the mother were taking her own proceedings as she is, of course, free to do.
These changes in the procedures will significantly reduce the number of cases in which the detailed information is obtained—although these already represent only a small minority of the total number of cases involving unmarried mothers. Because the statement will be linked obviously to the question of proceedings, the changes will reduce misunderstanding about the reasons for asking for the information.
The revised instructions which are being issued to staff to give effect to those changes, re-emphasise that the mother should be advised that she does not have to provide information about the alleged father or her relationship with him, and that her benefit entitlement will not be affected in any way by her declining to answer any question about him.