HC Deb 18 June 1974 vol 875 cc77-8W
18. Mr. Arthur Jones

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people were on supplementary benefit at the latest available date; and what were the main categories.

Mr. Robert C. Brown

As at 23rd April last about 2.75 million people were receiving supplementary benefit of whom about 1.8 million were supplementary pensioners. Of those beneficiaries who were below pension age about 279,000 were sick or disabled; 342,000 were unemployed and most of the remainder were women with dependent children.

Mr. Edwin Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the total amounts paid during each of the past five years for clothing, bedding and such other qualifying needs to persons who, although they are in the lower income groups, fail to qualify for the weekly supplementary benefit rates.

Mr. Robert C. Brown

I regret that this information is not available but such payments are known to be comparatively rare.

Mr. D. E. Thomas

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is her estimate of the number of families in Great Britain, and in Wales, Scotland, and each of the English regions, whose income fell below current supplementary benefit level in each year 1966 to 1973.

Mr. Robert C. Brown

Following are the estimates for Great Britain for families with children, where the head of the family was not receiving supplementary benefit, for 31st December of the years given.

Thousands (Great Britain)
1968 1969 1970 1971 1972
120 160 130 130 90

Because of sampling errors, estimates are possible only for Great Britain. Comparable estimates go back only to 1968. The information on which to base estimates for 1973 is not yet available.

The estimates have been rounded to the nearest 10,000 and are subject to sampling error.

Mr. D. E. Thomas

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the level of supplementary benefit scale as a percentage of the average full-time male manual weekly earnings for each year 1966 to 1973.

Mr. Robert C. Brown

The information requested is contained in the following table:

SUPPLEMENTARY BENEFIT ORDINARY SCALE RATES AS A PERCENTAGE OF AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS* OF MALE MANUAL WORKERS IN OCTOBER
Year Single householder Married couple
1966† … 18.7(20.0) 30.9(32.8)
1967 … 20.1 33.0
1968 … 19.8 32.4
1969† … 18.3(19.3) 30.0(31.6)
1970† … 17.1(18.5) 28.0(30.3)
1971 … 18.8 30.6
1972 … 18.3 29.7
1973 … 17.5 28.5
* Taken from the inquiries conducted by the Department of Employment.
†In these years supplementary benefit scale rates were increased in November; the entries in parenthesis show the relevant percentage of the increased rate.