NOT AT PRESENT

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 138, 7 March 1941, Page 8

NOT AT PRESENT

Family Allowances In

Britain

DEBATE IN LORDS (British OiHciai Wireless.) (Received March 6, 7.30 p.m.) . RUGBY, March 5. Moving a motion in the House of Lords that the “introduction of a system of family -allowances, whether paid for fully by the State or by a method of contributory insurance, would provide means of preventing the increased cOst of living'from injuring families with dependent children,” the Bishop of Winchester, Dr. Garbett, said the estimated cost of a supporting allowance made only to those families where there were three or more children would be 000,000 annually, that was to say, the cost of two and a half days of the war.

Viscount Samuel said it was difficult to see why this reform had not been carried out long since, but now in these days of war it had immediate urgency. Lord Moyne, for the Government, agreed that a general rise in wages would not solve the question. It would merely alter the period at which the pinch would be felt. They had to bear in mind that organized Labour had not so far supported a system of family allowances and no method of payment could possibly be adopted without the support of organized Labour. Much had been done to reduce the cost of living, Lord Moyne said. Over £100,000,006 annually was now spent in keeping down the price of essential foodstuffs. The matter must be considered in the light of the whole planning of post-war reconstruction. He had ’ discussed it with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Kingsley Wood, and the Minister without portfolio in charge of long-term planning, Mr. Greenwood. Neither was hostile to the idea of family allowances, but the Chancellor made it quite clear that he could not possibly afford, with the present substantial cheapening of the necessities of life, to grant a large sum for family allowances.