Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits – 3 December 1986

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits on 3rd December 1986.

Mr. Hirst Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish the latest take-up estimates for supplementary benefit and one-parent benefit.

Mr. Major The latest estimates by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys of the number of one parent families in Great Britain for each year from 1979 to 1984, suggest that the take-up rate of one parent benefit over that period is as follows:

Year | Per cent.
1979 | 70
1980 | 77
1981 | 78
1982 | 83
1983 | 89
1984 | 93

Notes:

(1) The take-up rate is of those families who stand to gain. Not all families can gain because one parent benefit is taken into account as income for supplementary benefit purposes.
(2) The increase in child benefit (one parent benefit) for a single parent family was introduced in 1977.