Report on the Beveridge proposals
1943-01-19 1943 1940s 20 pages 5. temptation to evade work would be much less, since, the financial advantage of doing so will not be increased by obtaining children's allowances as part of Unemployment Benefit. Another reason is that the payment of children's allowances will go a...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
19 January 1943
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/3D5ADFF1-8133-4301-94C8-7A434EC748D2 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/BA27AD1B-793E-4A04-B8FF-F756AB35ECD4 |
| Summary: | 1943-01-19
1943
1940s
20 pages
5. temptation to evade work would be much less, since, the financial advantage of doing so will not be increased by obtaining children's allowances as part of Unemployment Benefit. Another reason is that the payment of children's allowances will go a long way to meeting want in large families by assuring inter alia provision for regular meals. If the first child is omitted expenditure would still have to be borne to meet the cost of providing meals and milk for the first child in the case of necessitous families. The third argument which the Committee felt it could not ignore on political grounds is that the exclusion of the first child would inevitably become an Election issue, and as its inclusion would almost certainly be a plank in the programme of other Parties it would be difficult to resist. As to the rate of the children's allowance, the Committee felt that it should not be a subsistence allowance (except in certain cases for orphans) but it should be made clear that parental responsibility is not removed and that the allowances are made by the State for the purpose of making the bringing up of families easier and for dealing with want in large families, The allowances would be a direct charge on the State and in deciding the method of payment, the Committee, by a majority, feel that in the case of children attending public elementary schools the allowance should be paid partly to meet the cost of meals and milk, and partly in cash. There is much to be said for dealing with the allowances on this basis as thereby it would ensure that that part of the allowance would find its way to the child for which it is intended. Already the introduction of school meals and school milk makes plain the way for this. If, for example, as has been suggested, the allowance per child was fixed at 5/- per week, 2/6 might be paid by way of meals and milk and 2/6 paid direct to the parent or guardian. The payment of children's allowances raises the question whether there should be some modification in the system of Income Tax rebates for children or whether they
200/B/3/2/C216/5/93 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |