§ 17. Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether she has any plan to raise the level of disregards as they affect supplementary benefits.
§ 29. Miss Fookesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will take steps to increase the amount which a person may earn, without losing supplementary benefit, from £2 to £5.
§ Mr. Alec JonesWe have said that we intend to improve the supplementary benefit disregards when resources allow. I cannot go further than that at present.
§ 24. Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the current rates of "disregard"—income and capital—in the computation of social welfare benefits; and on what date or dates these rates were fixed.
§ Mr. Alec JonesThe current amounts of income and capital disregarded in the computation of supplementary pensions and allowances were fixed in November 1966. The information is as follows:
The principal disregards under the Supplementary Benefit Act 1966 are:
1. CAPITAL
Capital of £300 or less is completely ignored. With capital of more than £300 any actual income it produces is ignored; instead a weekly income is calculated according to a "tariff" of 5p for each complete £25 between £300 and 52W £800 and 12½p for each £25 above £800. The tariff income so calculated counts towards the £1 disregard of other miscellaneous income (see (4) below), the effect being that where there is no other income a maximum of £800 of capital is disregarded.
2. EARNINGS
The disregard is £2 a week for each earner, except in the case of claimants required to register for work as a condition of receiving benefit, and children under 16, when the disregard is £1.
3. DISABLEMENT PENSIONS, ETC.
Up to £2 is disregarded of the total of—
- (a) war and industrial disablement pensions;
- (b) workmen's compensation;
- (c) the amount by which a war or industrial widow's pension exceeds the standard rate of the national insurance widow's pension;
- (d) part of the children's allowances included in the national insurance widow's pension and war widow's pension—38p a week each for the first and second child and 28p for each subsequent child.
4. OTHER MISCELLANEOUS INCOME
£1 is disregarded of the total of miscellaneous income such as occupational pensions, charitable payments and "tariff" income from capital (see (1) above).
There is no disregard of main national insurance benefits, family allowances and maintenance payments, and the most that can be disregarded from (3) and (4) together is £2.