§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the exact sum recovered through liable relatives procedures with single mothers on supplementary benefit; and what is the total cost of recovery if sharing court costs, salaries and other costs separately.
§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the sum recovered through liable procedures with single mothers on supplementary benefit; and what is the total cost of recovering it, showing salaries, court costs and other cost separately.
§ Mrs ChalkerA figure for the exact sum recovered is not available and could not be obtained without considerable cost, but it is estimated to have been in the region of £7 million in 1979 and somewhat higher in 1980.
The Department employs about 2,300 staff in work connected with recoveries from liable relatives. These staff do not specialise in particular kinds of cases, so that it is not possible to say how many deal with the cases of 436W single mothers. However, a realistic estimate of salary costs for this part of the work would be around £3 million. The Department incurred legal costs, outside the costs of its own staff, of about £32,000 in 1980 in proceedings under section 19 of the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976.
§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Social Services in how many cases where a single mother is interviewed by his officers information about her sexual relationships is used in subsequent proceedings.
§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services in how many cases where a single mother is interviewed in connection with the payment of benefit information about her sexual relationships is used in subsequent proceedings.
§ Mrs ChalkerThis information is needed where the Department is taking action to obtain maintenace from the child's father. It is therefore obtained in only a small minority of cases where single mothers claim benefit—that is, in those cases where the father is not already maintaining the child, where the mother is not taking maintenance proceedngs herself, and where she does not object to the Department taking action to obtain maintenance. In 1980 the Department's solicitors prepared 959 such cases for proceedings under section 19 of the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976.
§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what instructions are given to officers of h is Department making inquiries of mothers seeking supplementary benefit that they are not obliged to answer questions about the father of their child and their entitlement to benefit does not depend upon their answering such questions.
§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services why it is not made clear in the instructions to officers interviewing single mothers in connection with the payment of benefit that a mother must be told at the start of the interview that she is not obliged to answer questions about her child's father and that her entitlement to benefit does not depend on her answering the questions which she might consider offensive.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe subject of maintenance for the child of a single mother is a quite separate issue from the mother's entitlement to benefit and is dealt with separately. There is no question of benefit being dependent on whether the mother gives information about the father. The instructions to officials already state quite clearly that they should not press the single mother for details of the father, and that if she does not wish to discuss the matter it should not be pursued. The instructions also state that questions about the mother's relationship with the father are to be asked only where she does not object to the Department taking action to obtain maintenance. However, as I have already said in my reply to the hon. Member for Keighley (Mr. Cryer) on 25 March 1981, I am arranging for these procedures to be re-examined urgently and I intend to make a further statement when the outcome is known.