§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the loss accruing to those on full rate of family income supplement with (a) no children, (b) one, (c) two and (d) three or more children by applying or renewing an application for family income supplement (i) one week before 27 November, (ii) two weeks, (iii) three weeks, (iv) four weeks and (v) five weeks and those being paid for most of the next year after 27 November at the old rates; whether he would advise such people to delay their applications until 27 November; and what is his estimate of the total saving from continuing those cases which come up to 27 November at the old rates for the next year.
§ Mr. NewtonAll families entitled to the maximum rate of family income supplement (FIS) would have received £1 a week extra, regardless of the number of children they have (although FIS recipients must have at least one dependent child), if existing awards at 27 November were to be increased to take account of the new prescribed levels.
Families who have a renewal award commencing one week before 27 November will receive the full benefit of the new levels, under special arrangements. Those whose renewal awards are due to commence either two or three weeks before 27 November will have again under special arrangements, the option of a continuation award at the old levels or a 52-week award from 27 November at the new levels. All these families are receiving an individual letter explaining the choice. Those renewing an award four weeks or more before 27 November will receive £1 a week less than they would have done for the period of their award still to run after 27 November; a total of £48 if renewal was four weeks before, £47 if renewal was five weeks before and so on.
It is estimated that the savings resulting from not applying the new levels to all awards commencing in 721W November this year would be about £500,000 but the savings from those cases receiving the maximum rate would be only a small proportion of this.
As families' circumstances can change, it would not be appropriate to advise whether it would be in their interests to delay making a claim.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services when he intends to write to all family income supplement recipients renewing their application before 27 November, setting out the advantages of delaying the application in order to draw family income supplement at the new rate after 27 November; how many people and how many weeks of renewals are involved in this; and if he will estimate the cost involved.
§ Mr. NewtonWe have written to all 200,000 family income supplement recipients, only a proportion of which are due to renew their claims before 27 November, explaining the general effect of the change. The number of weeks each award has to run will vary. This, together with the fact that family circumstances may well change, makes it inappropriate to advise claimants whether or not to break the cycle of their awards. But we advise any family on request of the factors which may influence their decision.
There will be transitional arrangements applying to some 10,000 recipients who it is estimated will be entitled to renewal awards from 6, 13 or 20 November. The effect of the special arrangements has been fully and individually explained to all those who may be affected. Those successfully renewing their claims from either 6 or 13 November will be given details of the amounts payable under the old and new rates, and of any break involved. Those entitled to renewal awards from 20 November will receive the full benefit of the new rates from 27 November.
The administrative costs of this work are expected to be small.