§ Mr. Nellistasked the Prime Minister if she will publish a table showing the rate of supplementary benefit paid to a married man with two children expressed as a percentage of the average earnings of a manual worker excluding overtime and bonuses for 1953, 1963, 1973, and for each subsequent year to the most recent available date.
§ The Prime MinisterThe information requested is as follows:
Supplementary benefit scale rates for a married couple with two children* (including the average addition for rent) as a percentage of average gross weekly earnings† Per cent. October 1953‡ 51.3 May 1963 53.3 October 1973 69.7 July 1974 71.1 April 1975 68.6 November 1975 67.3 November 1976 68.3 November 1977 72.0 November 1978 68.0 November 1979 68.1 November 1980 69.9 November 1981 72.4 November 1982 76.6 Figures for 1983 are not yet available. Notes: * Supplementary benefit scale rates are for a married couple with two children, one aged under 5 and the other 5.10. They include average rent addition for an unemployed person and from November 1979 also take account of the age-related heating addition payable to families with a child under 5 years of age. †Figures above the line, for 1953 and 1963, are not directly comparable with those below the line. The Department of Employment's October inquiry, from which the 1953 and 1963 average earning figures are taken, did not distinguish between wages, bonuses and overtime. Figures below the line are based on estimates of average gross weekly earning, excluding overtime and bonuses, of male manual workers (aged 21 and over) in full-time work in Great Britain. They are derived from the new earnings survey using the Departrnent of Employment's index of average earnings (seasonally adjusted older series up to March 1978, centred three month moving average of the whole economy index from May 1978). ‡All dates are those of uprating, except that for 1953 when there was no uprating.