§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate has been made, on the basis of applications so far, of the percentage take up of the new child benefit in April 1977.
§ Mr. OrmeOver 7 million families will be entitled to child benefit. There is no problem of take-up with the over 4 million families who now get family allowances. Of the families with one child who need to claim, about 1 million have still to do so. I cannot now forecast the overall rate of take up by April 1977, but even with the existing level of claims from one child families it would be almost 85 per cent.