§ Mr. MallonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in how many cases, where income support is being paid to a single mother, the absent parent is paying maintenance.
§ Mr. HanleyResponsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Social Security Agency under its chief executive, Mr. Alec Wylie, who replied to the hon. Member on 5 January 1993.
Letter from Mr. Wylie to Mr. Seamus Mallon, dated 5 January 1993:
As I am responsible for Social Security operational matters your recent Parliamentary Question on the number of cases where income support is being paid to a single mother and the absent parent is paying maintenance, has been passed to me for reply.The most recent information available is set out below.
Year Court Order paid direct to single parent Voluntary Payment paid direct to single parent Court Order diverted to Department Voluntary Payment diverted to Department Total 1990 3,640 660 580 80 4,960 These figures include a small number of single fathers for whom there is no separate data available.
I hope you find this information helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report and copies will be placed in the Library.
§ Mr. MallonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many single parents are in receipt of income support; and how many of these are(a) male and (b) female.
§ Mr. HanleyResponsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Social Security Agency under its chief executive, Mr. Alec Wylie, who replied to the hon. Member on 5 January 1993.
Letter from Mr. Wylie to Mr. Seamus Mallon, dated 5 January 1993:
543WAs I am responsible for Social Security operational matters your recent Parliamentary Question on the number of single parents in receipt of Income Support and how many of these are (a) male and (b) female has been passed to me for reply.The most recent information available is set out below.
Year Total number of one parent families Total fatherless families1 (female claimants) Total male claimants2 1990 27,060 26,020 1,040 Notes:
1 the total number of female single parents includes 860 widows and 160 partners of prisoners, and
2 the total number of male single parents includes those who are widowed or divorced, for which there are no separate statistics.
I hope you find this information helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report and copies will be placed in the Library.
§ Mr. MallonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make it his policy to ensure that single parents, in receipt of state benefit, will not be penalised either because the absent parent fails to pay maintenance, or because the absent parent cannot be identified because of a perceived threat to the child or its mother.
§ Mr. HanleyIt already is Government policy to ensure that whenever the child support scheme is introduced in April 1993, parents with care who are in receipt of benefit and who have co-operated with the Child Support Agency in providing information about the absent parent, will not be penalised as a result of the absent parent failing to pay maintenance.
Similarly it is already Government policy to ensure that parents with care in receipt of income support, family credit or disability working allowance are not penalised for refusing to name the father of the child if they can show to the satisfaction of the Child Support Agency that to do so would carry the risk of causing harm or undue distress to the parent with care or to the child.