Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms
- Part 1 Setting the scene
- Part 2 Benefits for unemployed people
- Part 3 Benefits for disabled people
- Part 4 Benefits for children and families
- Part 5 Benefits for retirement
- Part 6 Towards a welfare class?
- References and further reading
- Index
15 - Trends in receipt of benefits by children and families
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms
- Part 1 Setting the scene
- Part 2 Benefits for unemployed people
- Part 3 Benefits for disabled people
- Part 4 Benefits for children and families
- Part 5 Benefits for retirement
- Part 6 Towards a welfare class?
- References and further reading
- Index
Summary
Summary
Some benefits are only available to families with children – Child Benefit and Family Credit – while the level of other benefits is higher if dependent children are living with the applicant, for example, Housing Benefit and Income Support.
Child Benefit is paid on behalf of all children under 17 and to young people aged 17 and 18 who are in full-time non-advanced education. Family Credit is available on a means-tested basis to people working 16 or more hours each week if they have dependent children.
Child Benefit was claimed on behalf of a million children in 1999, down since its introduction in 1997. However, the number of families receiving Family Credit or its earlier equivalent rose by more than eleven-fold, to 788,000, between 1971 and 1999.
The number of families with children claiming Income Support or the earlier benefit equivalent tripled between 1971 and 1999, to 1.4 million.
Housing Benefit was received by 1.4 million families with children in 1998, an eight-fold increase over 1990.
Identifiable benefit expenditure on families with children increased, from 16% of total social security spending in 1978/79, to 18 % in 1998/99.
British governments have used the concept of benefits for children and families as a way of categorising social security expenditure since at least the mid-1970s. This reflects the importance attached to children – defined for the purposes of social security as all children up to the age of 16 and 17 and 18 year olds in full-time non-advanced education – and particularly to the avoidance of child poverty. The presence of children increases the risk of adult poverty, not least because there are more mouths to feed and less hours available to engage in paid work. Also, under a regime that features a sizeable volume of means testing, the existence of children assumes additional significance in relation to work disincentives. If the level of out-of-work benefits varies according to household size, benefits are likely to be higher for families with children, and work disincentives correspondingly greater.
Families with children can apply for the full range of social security benefits depending on their circumstances. However, some benefits are available solely on account of the fact that they have children.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Making of a Welfare Class?Benefit Receipt in Britain, pp. 189 - 194Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2000