§ Mr. Norman Atkinsonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list all the benefits, income supplements and entitlements from all sources, a single parent with a 19-year-old son attending university away from home and in receipt of a full grant is entitled 225W to receive assuming her total income from full-time work is not more than £4,500 per annum from which she has to pay £750 per annum rent and rates.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe following information is based on the assumption that the single parent is under pension age and that there are no special circumstances.
A single parent with a 19-year-old son at university would be entitled to the additional personal tax allowance provided her son resided with her during the university vacations. This would bring the parent's tax allowance up to the same level as that for a unmarried man.
226WIt is for the local authority to decide whether the son should be treated as a dependant child when assessing entitlement to rent and rates rebates. However, assuming that he is not dependent and the parent had no capital and her only income was from earnings she would be entitled to rent and rates rebates of about 80p a week during term time. Her entitlement may be greater in the vacations according to the circumstances.
If the single parent were a widow, she might be entitled to a widow's benefit. Entitlement would depend on her late husband's contributions, on her age and when her son ceased to be dependent and on how recently she had been widowed.