§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many war widows are currently receiving children's allowances; and for how many children;
582W(2) if he will make it his policy to ensure that there is no further reduction in the combined value of children's allowances and child benefit for war widows' children;
(3) what is the annual loss to a war widow with one, or two or three children respectively, resulting from the decision not to maintain the real value of war widows' children's allowances and child benefit since November 1979;
(4) what was the outcome of his consideration of the issues relating to war widows' children's allowances mentioned in the adjournment debate on child dependency additions on 21 January, Official Report, columns 142–46.
§ Mr. JackThe disposable income available to war widows and their families has benefited substantially from this Government's policies. Child allowances are only one element in a structure of benefit payments with levels set above those for other widows on pensions.
Virtually all war widows receiving children's allowances, being "post-1973" war widows are also likely to be receiving children's pensions from the Ministry of Defence under the armed forces pension scheme. This Government have made several significant improvements to the overall position of war widows. The hon. Member will be aware from my reply to him on 28 January 1991 at columns 440–42 that in 1979 war widows' pensions were made tax free; in 1984 a new tier of age allowance was introduced for those over 80; in 1988 the disregard on war pensions for income-related benefits was increased to £5 and to £10 in 1990. In 1990 pre-1973 war widows were awarded special payments of £40 a week. These, too, were tax free and are also totally disregarded for the purpose of calculating entitlement to income-related benefits. Also, in April 1990 war widows' age allowances were increased by more than the rate of inflation. Both war widows' children's allowances and war widows' pensions have consistently been set at preferential rates compared to those applicable to national insurance widows and children.
We will continue to uprate the basic war widows' children's allowance by the increase in the RPI, deducting any overlapping cash increase in child benefit, using the formula introduced by the last Labour Government in order to safeguard war widows against the loss of tax allowances during the phasing in of child benefit.
The number of war widows' children's allowance in payment is about 2,500; information on the number of war widows receiving them is not readily available.
The combined values of war widows' children's allowance and child benefit at current prices and at the values as they would have been had this been uprated in line with movements in the retail prices index are as shown in the tables:
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One child A B C D E Uprating date1 Value of child benefit plus children's allowance Value if uprated in line with movements in retail prices index2 Difference between A and B(weekly loss) Total loss over period between uprating dates3 £ £ £ £ £ November 1979 14.00 — — — November 1980 15.35 16.14 .79 41.28 November 1981 16.10 18.08 1.98 102.74 November 1982 17.10 19.21 2.11 109.54 November 1983 17.45 20.14 2.69 139.73 November 1984 17.90 21.13 3.23 168.09 November 1985 18.55 22.29 3.74 130.79 July 1986 18.65 22.66 4.01 140.28 April 1987 18.85 23.65 4.80 249.78 April 1988 19.25 24.58 5.33 277.31 April 1989 19.85 26.56 6.71 348.81 April 1990 20.65 29.07 8.42 437.69
Tow children A B C D E Uprating date1 Value of child benefit plus children's allowance Value if uprated in line with movements in retail prices index2 Difference between A and B(weekly loss) Total loss over period between uprating dates3 £ £ £ £ November 1979 28.00 — — — November 1980 30.70 32.29 1.59 82.56 November 1981 32.20 36.15 3.95 205.48 November 1982 34.20 38.41 4.21 219.08 November 1983 34.90 40.27 5.37 279.46 November 1984 35.80 42.27 6.47 336.18 November 1985 37.10 44.57 7.47 261.58 July 1986 37.30 45.32 8.02 280.56 April 1987 37.70 47.31 9.61 499.55 April 1988 38.50 49.17 10.67 554.61 April 1989 39.70 53.12 13.42 697.61 April 1990 41.30 58.13 16.83 875.39 584W
Three children A B C D E Uprating date1 Value of child benefit plus children's allowance Value if uprated in line with movements in retail prices index2 Difference between A and B(weekly loss) Total loss over period between uprating dates3 £ £ £ £ £ November 1979 42.00 — — — November 1980 46.05 48.43 2.38 123.85 November 1981 48.30 54.23 5.93 308.21 November 1982 51.30 57.62 6.32 328.62 November 1983 52.35 60.41 8.06 419.20 November 1984 53.70 63.40 9.70 504.27 November 1985 55.65 66.86 11.21 392.38 July 1986 55.95 67.97 12.02 420.84 April 1987 56.55 70.96 14.41 749.33 April 1988 57.75 73.75 16.00 831.92 April 1989 59.55 79.67 20.12 1,046.42 April 1990 61.95 87.20 25.25 1,313.08 Notes: 1 Uprating dates refer to the children's allowance. For all but the first date they are also the uprating dates for child benefit. 2 Values of child benefit plus children's allowance as they would have been had they been uprated in line with movements in the retail prices index between uprating dates. 3 The period between uprating dates is taken as 52 weeks except for the periods from November 1985 and July 1986 for which the relevant number of weeks is 35.