§ Mrs. Chalkerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will estimate the numbers of working families with children who will in April 1975 have their incomes raised to the official State poverty line as a result of the increase in family allowances due to take place that month.
§ Mr. Alec JonesAt the end of 1973, the latest date for which estimates can be made, it is estimated that there were about 50,000 families with children where the head was working and where their net resources were below supplementary benefit level. The effect of the April 1975 increases, on the assumptions made in my reply to the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Mr. Wainwright) on 13th November—[Vol. 881, c.179.]—would have been to remove about one-third of these families from below the supplementary benefit level.