I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £40,000 be granted todefray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1953, for Children's Allowances (No. 2 of 1944; No. 8 of 1946; and No. 12 of 1952).
There is another Estimate for Social Insurance, Vote No. 73, and perhaps I might deal with both together. These two Estimates, as I explained last week on other Estimates, arise out of the Social Welfare legislation of last year. The Social Welfare (Children's Allowances) Act, 1952, widened the scope of the earlier Acts by granting an allowance of 11/- per month for the second child in a family in respect of whom no allowance was previously payable. In addition the allowances in respect of the third and subsequent children were increased by ? per week and put on a monthly basis. It was estimated in June of last year that these enlargements of the Children's Allowances Scheme would increase the cost of the service by £2,120,000 in the present financial year and a Supplementary Estimate for that amount was taken at the same time as the general Estimates for my Department were taken. It now appears that the amount required was slightly underestimated and that a further £40,000 will be needed this year. The under-estimation was mainly due to the fact that the number of second-child claims was greater than was expected.
The second Estimate before the House, that for social insurance, is a new one which has not appeared before in the Book of Estimates. As will be seen, it provides mainly for the payment by the Exchequer to the Social Insurance Fund of the amount by which the expenditure out of that fund exceeds its income. This was the method of financing the new insurance scheme laid down in Section 39 of the Social Welfare Act, 1952, and this one Exchequer payment now takes the place of the grants formerly made by the Exchequer to the National Health Insurance Fund, the Unemployment Fund and the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Fund. These former grants were substantial in amount, and have ceased as from the 5th January of this year, when the Social Welfare Act,1952, was brought fully into operation.
The amount provided under sub-head B of the Social Insurance Estimate is a continuation of the provision formerly made in the Vote for National Health Insurance by which the Exchequer paid to the National Health Insurance Fund an amount equal to the interest which would have been received on the moneys expended under Section 21 of the Social Welfare Act, 1950.