§ 15. Sir C. Osborneasked the Minister of Social Security if she will investigate and report on the case, sent to her by the hon. Member for Louth, of a deserted married woman with one child to maintain, whose wages after paying rent for her council flat left her with only 12s. 6d. a week, who applied for social security help, was refused because she was working, but was offered £11 a week if she stopped working; and if she will stop this policy which encourages idleness.
§ Mr. PentlandI am writing to the hon. Member about the personal case he has mentioned. It is, of course, a firm principle that supplementaray benefit is not payable to people in full-time work. But it is; payable to an unsupported woman with a dependent child without any requirement to seek work; and if such a woman makes a claim while working full-time for wages below the supplementary benefit level I think it is absolutely right not simply to tell her that she is ineligible while working full time, but also to explain to her what her entitlement would be if she were working part-time and thus eligible for supplementary benefit.
§ Mr. Fortescueasked the Minister of Social Security (1) what estimate she has made of the number of fatherless families there are living below supplementary benefit level, with the mother earning under £5 per week; and how many of these would be entitled to supplementary benefit if they applied;
(2) what estimate she has made of the number of families living below supplementary benefit level in which the wage earner is earning less than £5 per week, and is in full-time work.
§ Mrs. HartI have no information on which the estimates sought by the hon. Member could be based.
A woman who is the head of a family and is in full-time work is not entitled to draw supplementary benefit; but if 156W she is not in full-time work she would normally qualify for some supplementary benefit if she has no other income.