HC Deb 27 October 1971 vol 823 cc348-9W
94. Mr. Clinton Davis

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his latest estimate of the number, and the percentage, of people entitled to claim the family income supplement who have claimed and been awarded a supplement, respectively.

Sir K. Joseph

Awards of Family Income Supplement have been made to over 58,000 families where the head is in fulltime work. This is 35 per cent. of the estimate of such families which I gave with a warning that it was subject to wide margins of error on the second reading of the Family Income Supplement Bill last November. About another 25,000 families who are or would otherwise be wage-stopped are benefiting under the Family Income Supplements Act. The two figures together make up 44 per cent. of the estimate of 188,000 eligible families altogether which I then gave. This of course was subject to similar reservations.