§ Mr. John Pageasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much supplementary benefit was paid out to families of employees of Messrs. Pilkington, of St. Helen's, during the recent unofficial dispute; how many families were involved; over how many weeks' benefit was paid; what was the administrative cost to his Department of paying out the benefit; and how many employees of the company received unemployment benefit.
§ Mr. Ennals:During the course of the dispute just under 18,300 payments of supplementary benefit, totalling £111,600. were made to dependants of persons involved. About 3,800 families received help at some time during the dispute, among them being some families who received help in all the six weeks in which benefit payments were made. The administrative cost of paying out the benefit is estimated at £14,000. No unemployment benefit was paid.
§ Mr. Bruce-Gardyneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the total cost of supplementary benefits paid to the families of men involved in the strike of employees of Pilkington, at St. Helens, plus the administrative costs therewith associated, to public funds.
§ Mr. Ennals:Supplementary benefit paid during the dispute to the dependants of the men involved amounted to £111,600. The administrative cost of paying the benefit is estimated at £14,000.
§ Mr. Bruce-Gardyneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what has been the total cost of supplementary benefits paid to the families of men on strike, and of administering such benefit, plus the cost of payments to tide families over until salaries are received on resumption of work to date during the current calendar year; and what has been the corresponding figure for the equivalent period of each of the past five years.
§ Mr. Ennals:The amounts of supplementary benefits paid for the families of men on strike for the period January to April in each of the years concerned is as follows:
630W
Calendar Year Payments £ 1970 … … … 276,030 1969 … … … 194,979 1968 … … … 99,504 1967 … … … 29,582 1966 … … … 11,276 1965 … … … 16,315 It is not possible to say for these periods what was the cost of supplementary benefit payments made on return to work to tide families over until wages are received as figures of this kind are only available for major strikes. Nor can the cost of administering the benefits be readily ascertained.
§ Mr. Bruce-Gardyneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what has been the aggregate cost to public funds of social security benefits of all kinds paid to strikers and the families of strikers since 15th October, 1964, or the nearest date for which figures are available, and the total cost to public funds of corresponding payments during the equivalent preceding period; and what was the percentage change between the two figures.
§ Mr. Ennals:Only figures of supplementary benefit payments are available. These are as follows:
Calendar Year Payments £ 1969 … … … 748,542 1968 … … … 334,471 1967 … … … 377,102 1966 … … … 127,588 1965 … … … 65,937 1,653,640 1964 … … … 50,016 1963 … … … 27,023 1962 … … … 52,827 1961 … … … 91,368 1960 … … … 75,789 297,023 The percentage increase for the period since 1964 is approximately 550 per cent.