asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will relax the family income supplement rule on hours of work as it applies to one-parent families.
I am pleased to announce that the Government propose to reduce the number of hours lone parents are required to work each week before they may become entitled to family income supplement from 30 to 24. This proposal, which will take effect next April, will make it much easier for a lone parent to combine the task of bringing up a family with having a job and not to have to rely solely on social security benefits.We expect the change to bring up to another 10,000 one-parent families within the scope of the family income supplement scheme at an annual additional cost for the scheme of about £1½ million.