Britain: An official handbook > 1977

SOCIAL WELFARE
NON-CONTRIBU-
TORY BENEFITS
Family
Allowances
Child Benefit
Guardian’s
Allowance
Old Persons’
Pensions
Benefits for
Disabled People
SUPPLEMENTARY
BENEFITS
125
Family allowances are provided in Great Britain under the Family Allowances
Act 1965 and in Northern Ireland by separate legislation. They are paid in
Great Britain to about 4-4 million families and in Northern Ireland to some
142,000 families. The rate of the allowance is ^1-50 for each child in a family
other than the first. They are payable to families with two or more children who
are under minimum school-leaving age (or under 19 and either in full-time
education or apprentices with low earnings).
Allowances are paid from the Treasury and their object is to benefit the
family as a whole; they may be drawn by the wife or husband but they belong in
law to the wife who must claim them. Although the allowances are non-con¬
tributory, there are certain residence conditions.
In April, family allowances will be replaced by a child benefit payable to the
mother for all children in a family; it will be £1 for the first child and £1-50 for
every other child in the family. Benefit for the first child of one-parent families
is £1-50. Income tax allowances for children will be phased out.
Guardian’s allowance is a weekly benefit of ^7-45 payable to a person who has
in his or her family a child who has lost both parents, one of whom must have
been born a British subject in Britain or the Isle of Man or must have satisfied
certain residence conditions.
A pension of £5‘6o for a married woman and £<)’20 for any other person (in¬
cluding an age addition of £o'2^) is payable (subject to conditions of residence
in Britain) to people over 80 years old who were excluded from the national in¬
surance scheme when it started or who failed to qualify for a retirement pension
or qualified for one at a lower rate.
An attendance allowance of £12-20 is paid to severely disabled people requiring
a great deal of attention by day and at night. A lower rate of £8-15 may be paid
to those who need help either by day or at night. A non-contributory invalidity
pension of £9'2o is payable to people of working age unable to work and not
qualifying for the national insurance invalidity pension; this will be extended
in November 1977 to disabled housewives who are incapable of work and
unable to perform their normal household tasks.
In July 1976 a weekly invalid care allowance of £9-20 became payable to
people who cannot go out to work because they are caring for a severely disabled
relative receiving an attendance allowance. In addition the Government is
introducing (over a three-year period from 1976) a mobility allowance of £5 a
week for severely disabled people (aged between five and pension age) who are
unable, or virtually unable, to walk and are likely to remain so for at least 12
months. The allowance aims to assist all such severely disabled people in their
transport costs, d his is unlike the previous system when mobility help
depended on the use of a motorised vehicle.
The Supplementary Benefit Act 1966 provides for a scheme of supplementary
benefits which is administered by a Supplementary Benefits Commission within
the Department of Health and Social Security. There is a similar commission in
Northern Ireland.
Every person in Great Britain aged 16 or over who is not in full-time work,
attending school or involved in a trade dispute and whose resources are in¬
sufficient to meet his requirements, as laid down by Parliament, is entitled to
supplementary benefit. In Northern Ireland a residence condition must also be