§ Mr. Squireasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the likely effect on the numbers (a) eligible for and (b) in receipt of family income supplement if child benefit were raised to the level of child support provided for long-term national insurance beneficiaries and if the family income supplement qualifying limits were adjusted downwards to take account of this increase.
§ Mr. NewtonA long-term national insurance beneficiary is entitled to child benefit of £5.25 and a dependency addition of £7.70, making a total in child support of £12.95 a week for each dependent child. On the assumption that my hon. Friend has in mind raising child benefit to £12.95 and lowering the qualifying limits for family income supplement to take account of this increase in such a way that as many families as possible are taken off FIS, the numbers receiving FIS would have been reduced from about 132,000 to about 42,000 at the latest date, 29 December 1981, for which estimates can readily be made. The net cost would be of the order of £4,000 million a year.
I regret that no comparative figures are available for 29 December 1981 of the numbers of families eligible for FIS, as distinct from the numbers receiving it.
§ Mr. Squireasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what increase in child benefit would be required to permit the abolition of family income supplement without loss of income to those currently in receipt of family income supplement.
§ Mr. NewtonThe maximum amounts that may be paid in family income supplement are £18.50 a week for a family with one child and for larger families, £18.50 with an additional £1.50 for each child after the first. In order to match these amounts, child benefit would have to be raised from the present standard rate of £5.25 a week for 101W each child in the family to £23.75 for the first child, and to £6.75 for each other child. The cost would be over £6,000 million a year.
This will not however compensate all families receiving FIS for the loss of their FIS. The receipt of FIS provides automatic entitlement—a "passport"—to other benefits. Examples are free school meals with an average value of £2.25 a week during school terms, and free welfare milk which is worth £1.40 a week, for each eligible child.
§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average length of time taken to process a claim for family income supplement.
§ Mr. NewtonAbout three weeks.
§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what proportion of applicants for family income supplement used the special procedure for those in new employment of providing evidence of earnings for two weeks only in the most recent year for which information is available.
§ Mr. NewtonThe period over which earnings are averaged in calculating a family's gross weekly income for the purposes of family income supplement is a matter for the independent adjudicating authorities. No records are kept of the number of cases or of the circumstances in which the adjudicating authorities take an average over two weeks only.