§ Ms. Harmanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many claims by (a) married women and (b)cohabiting women, under the directive on equal 331W treatment for men and women in social security matters, have been successful; and what are the four most common reasons for refusal;
(2) how many claims have been made to his Department by (a) married women and (b) cohabiting women, on behalf of a couple under the directive on equal treatment for men and women in social security matters.
§ Mr. WhitneyIn the case of supplementary benefit, by January 1985 14,300 claims had been made by married and co-habiting women, of which about 5,800 were successful. No records are kept of the reason for refusal, but the reason would be either that the couple's income was too high for the claim to succeed or that the woman failed to qualify to be the claimant under the conditions set out in the Supplementary Benefit (Aggregation) Regulations. In addition, in about 2,500 cases there had been a change of claimant to the woman partner.
In the case of family income supplement, it is estimated that by January 1985 about 10,000 claims had been made by married and co-habiting women, of which about 3,000 were successful. The four main reasons for refusal are that (1) the claimant's partner was only temporarily not in work; (2) earnings were in excess of the prescribed amount; (3) the claimant was not in full-time work; and (4) the couple had no dependent children.
The records do not distinguish between married and cohabiting women.
In the case of national insurance benefits it is regretted that no information is available because of industrial action by computer staff.