§ Ms. RichardsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will provide a breakdown on the 27 per cent. extra real expenditure on families with children between 1979 and now.
§ Mrs. Gillian ShephardThe value of support for families and children provided through a combination of child tax allowances and social security benefits specifically for this group has increased by 29 per cent. in real terms between 1978–79 and 1989–90, from £7.3 billion to £9.4 billion in 1989–90 prices. Real-terms expenditure on family credit was nearly eight times as much as for family income supplement in 1978–79, while payments for maternity have increased by over 11 per cent. Expenditure on child benefit, plus the value of child tax allowances, has fallen by nearly 12 per cent., largely because the number of children has fallen and partly because child benefit was not uprated in 1988–89 and 1989–90. Expenditure on one-parent benefit has increase nearly fourfold, while real-terms spending on income support and housing benefit to lone-parent families has risen nearly two and a half times.