§ 40. Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied with the extent of the evidence that is available to him as to the standard of living of families where the head of the household is unemployed, at present levels of benefit.
§ Dr. BoysonWe have a range of information available to us on this subject. The most recent substantial piece of research carried out by the Department was the cohort study of unemployed men, which was designed to collect information on the incomes in and out of work of men experiencing unemployment in order to throw light on, among other things, the living standards of unemployed people. Other sources of data include the annual family expenditure survey, from which comparisons are made between the expenditure patterns of families where the head of household is unemployed and those of other families; and some information on the circumstances of unemployed people is also available from the annual general household survey. To supplement this information, the Department has recently commissioned a survey by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys into the living standards of such families as the hon. Member mentions. The Department also takes note of relevent information available from occasional research studies by other Government Departments and research institutions.