§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the sum recovered through liable relatives procedures involving single mothers on supplementary benefit in Wales; and what is his estimate of the cost of recovery, showing salaries, court costs and other costs, separately.
§ Mrs. ChalkerA figure for the sum recovered in Wales is not available.
The Department employs about 140 staff in Wales on work connected with recoveries from liable relatives. As I said in my reply to the hon. Members for Brent, South (Mr. Pavitt) and for Kingston upon Hull, Central (Mr. McNamara) on 27 March—[Vol. 1, c. 435]—the staff for liable relative work do not specialise in particular kinds of cases, so that it is not possible to say how many deal with the cases of single mothers. However, a realistic estimate of salary costs for this part of the work would be around 234W £180,000. The Department incurred legal costs, outside the costs of its own staff, of about £4,500 in proceedings in Wales in 1980 under section 19 of the Supplementary Benefits Acts 1976.
§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report the section of the supplementary benefit handbook and the relevant section of departmental guidance to supplementary benefit officers which sets out that a mother is not obliged to answer questions about the father of her children.
§ Mrs. ChalkerIt would not be appropriate to publish the whole of the relevant section of the instructions, which is concerned with the protection of public funds. But a relevant sentence in which the hon. Member will be interested says
whatever her reasons, do not press the claimant to give details of the APF—alleged putative father—unless she wishes to do so.And in the paragraph listing the points to be covered in a statement from the single mother, the instructions remind the officer that the statement should be taken only where the mother has no objection to the man being seen.The relevant part of the Supplementary Benefit Handbook is reproduced below:
"Illegitimate children
14.18. As in the case of separated wives the Department's first concern is to ensure that the woman receives the supplementary benefit to which she may be entitled. The pursuit of liability for her child's support is a separate issue and her benefit does not depend on the circumstances of the child's birth or upon her willingness to provide information about her child's paternity.
§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services in how many cases of interviews with single mothers in Wales information about a sexual relationship was used in subsequent proceedings.
§ Mrs. ChalkerI refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Members for Kingston upon Hull, Central (Mr. MacNamara) and Brent, South (Mr. Pavitt) on 27 March—[Vol. 1, c.436.] In 1980, there were 105 cases from Wales prepared for proceedings under section 19 of the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976.