§ Mr. Bishopasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give further consideration to the payment by his Department of all maintenance orders to separated and divorced wives so as to ensure regularity of payments and to the need for his Department to claim the costs from the men concerned pending the publication of the Finer Committee Report.
§ Sir K. JosephArrangements already exist for women in receipt of supplementary benefit who have court orders for maintenance enforceable in magistrates' courts in England and Wales to authorise clerks to the justices to remit to the Department any moneys received under the orders. This enables their full entitlement to supplementary benefit to be paid regularly without regard to the maintenance payments due. In Scotland,220W where the system for paying maintenance is somewhat different, arrangements on similar lines can be made with the agreement of the husband, the woman and, i[...] appropriate, her solicitor.
To extend this kind of facility to all separated and divorced wives would be a very far-reaching change in present law and practice. The question of how far further provisions should be made for families in this position is within the terms of reference of the Finer Committee and it would not be right to anticipate its conclusions.