§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many families are entitled to family income supplement (or are thought so to be) and how many take up their entitlement.
§ Lord EltonThe number of families receiving family income supplement at 27th October 1981, the latest date for which figures are available, was about 124,000. It is not possible to say what percentage this represents of those families who might have been eligible at that date.
The latest estimate of the take-up of family income supplement is in the explanatory note which the department produced on 6th July 1981. Copies of this note, which was headed "The take-up of family income supplement: note on the estimate derived from the Family Finances Survey", were deposited in the Library of the House.