§ Mr. Patrick Jenkinasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many women are estimated to be affected by the decision not to pay maternity benefit to women who failed to sign the appropriate form when changing to the new rate of national insurance contribution for married women last year.
§ Mr. EnnalsWe have no knowledge of the number of cases in which married women have wrongly paid contributions at the full rate despite their election to be liable to pay contributions at only the reduced rate and who have subsequently failed to qualify for maternity benefit. If the right hon. Gentleman has an individual case in mind, I will gladly look into the circumstances if he will send me identifying details of the person concerned.
§ Mr. Patrick Jenkinasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many women were eligible for maternity benefit in the latest year for which figures are available; and what percentage failed to obtain the benefit because they claimed too late.
§ Mr. OrmeDuring the year ended 31 December 1977, the latest year for which figures are available, 609,900 claims were received for maternity benefit—that is, for maternity allowance and maternity grant, or for maternity grant alone—of which 593,200 of these were successful. I regret that figures are not available to show how many of the 2.74 per cent. who were unsuccessful were disqualified because of late claim.