Abuse of benefit doubted

Press, 22 August 1977, Page 12

Abuse of benefit doubted

The Committee on Women .[is not convinced that thej 'Domestic Purposes Benefit ' f | encourages the break-up of marriages and doubts the . claim that some girls deliberately bear children to ob- ’ tain an easy income, says a ’ news release from Welling= ton. r It was unlikely that a per- . son would go through the 1 trauma of a broken marriage because of the availability of > the benfit, the report said. ; The committee has seen no t evidence that a girl would ■ deliberately become pregnant to obtain a benefit. [ WELFARE PRIORITY i Prime consideration should ■ be given to the welfare of the solo parent and the • children. At a time of emotional insecurity they i needed a fair standard of • living, not a struggle against • poverty. Individual circum- > stances varied enormously, but any deliberate cases of

11 false pretences were “probHably relatively minimal to the cases of genuine need.” Rather than cut. the i benefit at a crucial stage of need, the Government should • consider other alternatives, the committee contends. A 1 better time to phase out the benefit would be when a solo parent’s responsibilities ; lessen to ease the gradual return to work. A woman should not have , to finalise maintenance proi ceedings before being granted a benefit, as that could cause undue delay and hardship. The committee says that the Government should inI vestigate the possibilities of ' developing and subsidising . child-care centres. Flexibility '■ should be allowed in the available income levels to ’ enable a sdlo parent to choose the number of hours worked to suit the particular situation.