§ Lady Olga MaitlandTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when he expects the research by the social policy research unit on the assessment of self-employed earnings in family credit to be published.
§ Mr. BurtI have today placed in the Library copies of the report "Measuring Low Incomes: Self-Employment and Family Credit" by the social policy research unit at the University of York.
We welcome this detailed review and plan to introduce a package of measures from April 1994 to improve the family credit service to self-employed families. The fast-track service for people who have recently started work will be extended to self-employed families. Currently the fast track for families of employees clears 95 per cent. of claims received within one week. At the same time the family credit claim pack will enable self-employed people to provide information about their earnings straightaway rather than later. These measures should speed up awards of family credit and make it as simple as possible to get the benefits due to them.
Within the next few weeks the Department will be issuing a consultative document to interested professional associations and bodies representing self-employed customers to seek their opinions on the issues raised by the report.
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