§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what he now estimates will be, following the upgrading of the prescribed levels, the annual cost of the family income supplement scheme and the number of persons who will benefit; and what percentage take-up he assumes in these calculations.
§ Sir K. JosephI have no reason to think that the number of potential beneficiaries
Optical Dental Prescriptions Free welfare milk and foods Wigs and fabric supports Weekly average before 1st April, 1971 … 726 438 253 29 Not applicable Weekly average 1st to 20th April, 1971 … 972 642 935 2,291 Not available Week ending 27th April, 1971 … 1,565 673 3,335 7,621 25 Week ending 4th May, 1971 … 2,854 1,410 5,643 10,400 63 Week ending 11th May, 1971 … 4,215 2,136 6,428 11,578 88
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what percentage take-up of the family income supplement he regards as a minimum criterion for the success of the scheme in the case, respectively, of those eligible for £1 or less, £3, and £4 per week supplement.
§ Sir K. JosephIt is not likely to be possible to measure take-up with the precision implied in the Question, because estimates of the potential field are inevitably subject to wide margins of error. Estimates of take-up will therefore have
68Wat the start of the Family Income Supplement Scheme, and the cost, will be substantially different from the estimates given when the Family Income Supplement Bill was before Parliament. The cost estimates assumed 85 per cent. take-up.
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what has been the weekly rate of successful claims of the family income supplement and of each of the benefits tied to it by the passport system for each week since 3rd May; and what were the corresponding rates for each of the previous four weeks.
§ Sir K. JosephClaims for Family Income Supplement could not be made before 3rd May but from that date up to 18th May 9,048 claims had been received. They are now being processed and it is too early yet to give figures about the number of successful claims. Statistics are provided below about successful claims for help with those charges which will shortly be automatically remitted for recipients of family income supplement, so far as they are available and relate to my Department's responsibilities. Earlier figures are included for comparison.
to be in general terms; our aim is to ensure that it is high.