§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the qualifying levels of free welfare food for a one, two and a four child family as a percentage of (a) gross and (b) not average earnings for each year since 1970.
§ Mr. Prentice, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 21 June 1979; Vol. 968, c. 657], gave the following answer:
The information is as follows:
that the unemployed should receive a higher rate after two years on benefit: if he accepts the estimated cost of £33 million; how many (a) claimants (b) dependants would benefit, and how many of them would be children under 16 years.
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§ Mrs. ChalkerAt November 1979 benefit rates, it is now estimated that extending the long-term rate of supplementary benefit to those unemployed for over two years would cost £42 million a year. This cost is based on the November 1978 figure of 120,000 claimants. These claimants would have at least the same number of dependants, but the sample does not allow accuracy about the number of children they would have. My right hon. Friend is not yet ready to make any statement about the Government's response to the review of the supplementary benefits scheme.