§ Mr. Peter Bottomleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the recommendations of the Finer report which have been implemented and those recommendations which it is proposed to implement, giving the date of implementation or proposed implementation.
§ Mr. Orme,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 17th November 1978; Vol. 958, c. 393–4],gave the following information:
The Finer committee's recommendations concerned various Government Departments and bodies such as local authorities and voluntary organisations. The information below relates to the recommendations, numbered as in part 9 of the Finer report, which touched on the work of my Department and of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS).
Action has been taken to implement the following recommendations:
5 (part). The Supplementary Benefits Commission's policy of encouraging women to take maintenance proceedings was abandoned in July 1975 in favour of a policy of explanation.
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55. The OPCShas produced estimates for 1976 comparable to those derived from the 1971 census. These have been published in the OPCS Monitor, FM2 78/2 dated 15th August 1978, and in an article in the September issue of"Population Trends ". The article explains the difficulties of making regular and detailed estimates of the numbers and family characteristics of one-parent families in the years between population censuses.
56. Statistical data relating to one-parent families receiving supplementary benefit have been published annually in"Social Security Statistics ", beginning with the issue containing statististics for 1973 which was published in 1975. Since 1976 the Supplementary Benefits Commission has published separate annual reports which include additional statistical information about recipients of supplementary benefit.
57. A number of key demographic statistics for Great Britain are prepared and published. Their coverage has been increased over the years and this process is continuing. However, differences in law and administrative practice mean that some of the demographic statistics collected in England and Wales are not fully comparable with those collected in Scotland.
119. Since September 1974, lone parents under 18 receiving supplementary benefit in their own right who are not householders have received the full adult non-householder scale rate automatically.
121. Supplementary benefit disregards were increased generally in November 1975. The part-time earnings disregard was further increased for one-parent families exclusively— from £ 4 to £6 net— in November 1976.
122. Since July 1974, lone fathers with sole care of dependent children under 16 living with them have no longer been required to register for work as a condition of the receipt of supplementary benefit.
125. My right hon. Friend announced on 7th November 1978 that, with effect from April 1979, we propose to reduce from 30 to 24 the number of hours lone parents have to work before they may be eligible for family income supplement.
170W126. The phasing in of tax-free child benefit and the phasing out of child tax allowances in respect of all children— other than certain students and children living overseas to whom special provisions apply— began in April 1977 and will be completed in April 1979.
157. Since May 1975, the supplementary Benefits Commission when considering the amount of rent that can be accepted as reasonable, has given special consideration to the difficulties of one-parent families in finding accommodation.
159 to 161. Since December 1974, rent has been paid direct to the landlord more readily when the householder has been receiving supplementary benefit and experiencing difficulty in paying the rent. A decision not to pay direct is authorised at a senior level. Payment to a private landlord more frequently than quarterly is made where he requests it. Local office managers have discretion to provide a similar facility for a local authority landlord.
170. Since October 1977, the Supplementary Benefits Commission has taken the initiative in advising claimants with mortgage liabilities that the building society might accept payment of interest only.
174. Following the publication of the Finer report, the Supplementary Benefits Commission, when considering claims for exceptional needs payments, has put further emphasis on the need to take account of the special difficulties of one-parent families in furnishing a home.
188 and 224. Recommendation 188 is in line with Government policy and has been met to some extent by the National Children's Bureau as part of the national child development study. The recommendation that further studies are needed of the difficulties experienced by immigrant families has been met in part by studies carried out by the former Community Relations Commission. Two reports have been published, one in 1975 and the other in 1977. In addition, my Department is commissioning research aimed at helping social services departments to identify and meet the particular 171W needs of clients from ethnic minority groups. Research on the problems of special groups such as the children of women prisoners and the families of long term hospital patients cannot be afforded high priority at present.
202. Following the recommendation that further research and experiment was needed in the provision of nursery centres, a preliminary study was made by Her Majesty's inspectors of schools and by social work service, medical and nursing officers of my Department. Their report"Combined Nursery Centres"has been published. An in-depth evaluation is currently being undertaken by the National Children's Bureau.
205. Sections 95 and 96 of the Children Act 1975 gave my right hon. Friend power to make regulations governing private fostering. The regulations have not been made yet because the resources that would be needed to put them into practice are not available.
195, 196, 201, 205, 228 to 230. These recommendations on the personal social services were generally in line with Government policies.
189 to 194, 197 to 200, 203, 204, 206, 207, 209, 210, 212, 213, 221 to 223, and 226. These recommendations were also generally in line with Government policies. They were mainly for action by local authorities and voluntary bodies. Much has been done already; further progress will depend on the availability of manpower and financial resources.
The following recommendations are still under consideration:
120. The Government have undertaken to consider the question of reducing the qualifying period for the longterm scale rate of supplementary benefit for all eligible beneficiaries, including families with children, when financial and manpower resources permit.
127. The recommendation that maternity grant should be turned into a non-contributory benefit could be considered only at some future time when more resources became available, and even then there would be difficult questions of priorities.
208. The assessment of charges for day care, which this recommendation 172W proposed should be rationalised on a national basis, is the responsibility of individual local authorities in the light of local circumstances and parents' means. Following the Layfield committee report, the consultative council on local government finance has set up a joint working group on fees and charges; charges for day care are one of the areas within the scope of the review.
227. This recommendation was to the effect that there should be discussions between the social services and education services on the special problems of one-parent immigrant families. The report of a joint working party of representatives of the Association of Directors of Social Services and of the Commission for Racial Equality, entitled"Multi-Racial Britain: the Social Services response"was published on 24th July 1978 and is being studied with a view to issuing guidance.
The action on the Finer recommendations of which I have given details is only part of the story of Government assistance to one-parent families over the past four and a half years.
In the field of family income support, the Government have given priority to two main programmes. One of these is the child benefit scheme which, by replacing the dual system of family allowances and child tax allowances by a single cash payment, provides a benefit for all families but gives greatest help to those with the lowest incomes. This benefit is now £3 a week for each child; it will rise to £ 4 in April 1979.
One-parent families may also benefit from the child benefit premium which we have introduced. This is now £ 2 per family. Like child benefit, its main aim is to help working families. Both child benefit and the premium are disregarded as income for the family income supplements—FIS—scheme; lone parents in low paid jobs therefore get both on top of their FIS. As a result of the proposed implementation of recommendation 125, FIS will be extended to an additional 10,000 or so one-parent families in April 1979.
The Government's other main social security programme for families is to make regular increases in the benefits for those who are unable to work full-time. 173W One-parent families have shared in those increases. Following this month's uprating, widowed mother's allowance, family income supplement, supplementary benefit and other benefits going to one-parent families are now running at a level of £900 million a year, £600 million higher than the comparable figure for February 1974 when this Government took office.