§ Mr. LesterTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much of benefit expenditure on lone parents including lone parent benefit, income support, family credit and housing benefit, is recouped from the absent parents; and what proportion of total outlay this amount represents.
§ Mrs. Gillian Shephard[holding answer 19 July 1989]: The Department has power to recoup benefit expenditure on lone parent families only where income support is in payment. Where parents are divorced or unmarried recovery applies only to benefit in respect of the children.
Based on the latest available figures for May 1988, lone parents receive income support of £1,789 million per annum net of £88 million maintenance paid direct to the lone parent. The Department collects a further £43 million from the absent parents. It is also estimated that a possible further £25 million may be saved in cases where DSS takes action on maintenance and the need for benefit is removed altogether.
Benefit expenditure saved therefore amounts to approximately 8 per cent. of what is estimated would have been spent on lone parent families but for the Department's action on maintenance. It is not possible to say how much of the total was recoverable.