§ 41. Mr. David Steelasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, in view of the present rate of inflation, she will now base earnings-related supplements on the current purchasing value of an income earned in the year 1973–74.
§ Mr. O'MalleyThe additional expenditure resulting from this proposal would go only to those receiving qualifying short-term benefits who are also at any one time receiving earnings-related supplement—some 50 per cent. of beneficiaries—and would give the greatest advantage to those with the highest rates of supplement. In the present difficult economic situation the Government have thought it right to give priority to maintaining the value of flat-rate benefits.