§ 52. Mr. McCrindleasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the progress of his consultations on the payment of benefits at less frequent intervals than weekly.
§ Mrs. ChalkerWe have received about 200 representa tions in response to the proposals in Cmnd. 8106 and these are now being analysed for consideration by Ministers. There seems to be full support for the proposal that people should be able to have their benefits paid direct into a bank account if they wish; and general agreement that DHSS should streamline some of its administrative procedures for paying benefits. There are differences of view on the proposal to pay child benefit four-weekly and the Government will wish to consider these carefully.
Some concern has been expressed about the effect of the proposals in Cmnd. 8106 on sub-post offices. The Government's firm objective is to enable new counter business to grow at a faster rate than the loss of DHSS business under the Cmnd. 8106 proposals, to ensure that there is sufficient counter revenue available to honour the Government's pledge that the sub-post office network will be safeguarded. Discussions to this end are in progress with Post Office interests.
I hope to be able to inform the House more fully on the outcome of the consultative process by Easter.