Child Benefit

HC Deb 28 January 1997 vol 289 cc190-1W

Mr. Harry Greenway

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on child benefit. [11692]

Mr. Andrew Mitchell

Child benefit contributes £560 a year to the cost of bringing up a child, and remains the cornerstone of our policies for family support. We believe that all families with dependent children should receive some help from either the tax or the benefit system, a principle recognised throughout Europe.

Proposals put forward by the Opposition would remove this help from more than a million families whose 16 to 18-year-olds choose to stay on in full-time education.