asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many one-parent families claim (a) long-term and (b) short-term, non-householder rate supplementary benefit.

Of the 326,000 one-parent families estimated to be receiving supplementary benefit at November 1977, 157,000 were in receipt of the long-term rates and 169,000 the ordinary rates. A total of 59,000 people was receiving the non-householder rate of supplementary benefit, but the numbers paid at the long-term and ordinary rates are not known.