At least half a million children, according to official estimates, live in poverty. Most are in families where the father is in full-time work. This is a situation which the Child Poverty Action Group is campaigning to get Government action upon. Higher earnings for low-paid workers and higher family allowances are both needed. To draw attention to this situation the Group is launching an intensive campaign against one source of poverty--the Wage Stop. This is the rule which enables the Ministry of Social Security to pay less than the basic Supplementary Benefit rate when a man is sick or unemployed. This deliberately keeps the family in poverty, says the Campaign, "Some 30,000 families suffer under this vicious rule, including over 100,000 children." "These families cannot fight the wage stop unaided. Social workers, trade unionists and other can help in a number of ways," including - asking the local office of the Ministry how an allowance is calculated if you suspect it is lower than normal. - advise families to appeal and help them by going along - if the appeal fails take it up with Minister, or M.P. , supply details of cases to local press (ommitting any details that would identify family). - Protest about the whole question to the Minister of Social Security. In order to assist members who may wish to give attention to this problem, we reprint in the following pages extracts from the Group's "Guide to the Wage Stop--and How to Beat It." The wage stop is intended to prevent a person who is receiving a supplementary allowance (formerly National Assistance) from being better off than if he were "in full-time work in his norman occupation."” It applies mainly to the unemployed but may also operate in cases of temporary sickness. The Supplementary Benefits Commission ascertains from the Ministry of Labour how much the person (nearly always a man) would be able to earn if he were now in full-time work. This can only be a rough estimate. It may be much less than his actual previous earnings, especially if he was previously working overtime or is now disabled or only fit for "light work", The man’s supplementary allowance is then adjusted so that, together with any part-time earnings and any other income payable only while he is off work (e.g. sick pay), it does not exceed his potential net earnings. A family whose needs, according to the supplementary benefit scale, amount to £15-£20 a week can easily get only £10-£12. Unemployed men are normally required to register at the employment exchange as a condition of receiving a supplementary allowance. The Ministry of Social Security Act provides that the wage stop rule shall apply to persons required to register at the employment exchange, unless there are exceptional circumstances, in practice, therefore, the unemployed are wage-stopped almost automatically if their income when in work is estimated to be telow the normal supplementary benefit scale; "exceptional circumstances" are extremely rare. For the sick, the application of the wage stop is discretionary. A man who is off work through sickness is not required to register at the employment
exchange, but he may still be wage-stopped if his illness is only temporary. In practice, the sick are usually wage-stopped for the first six months. Authority must be obtained from Headquarters if a sick person is to be wagestopped for longer than this. The decision to wage=-stop a sick person, however, does not depend on how long he has been sick but on whether the sickness is "temporary." Those who suffer most from the wege stop are often physically or mentally handicapped and disabled men who, despite their disabilities, are regarded as "available for work." Their potential earnings are assessed at a very low figure. The exact number of disabled men affected is not known, but it is stenificant that one-third of all unemployed men affected by the wage stop are classified as "light labourers." In September 1966, according to Ministry of Labour figures, there were 111 unemployed light labourers for every vacancy in this category (in Scotland there were nearly 1,200 unemployed for each vacancy). In these conditions, the chances of finding a job are negligible. Over half the wage-stopped unemployed in September 1965 had been out of work for over a year. To reduce a man's supplementary allowance in order to encourage him to seek work where none is a= vailable seems futile as well as unjust. It is possible to calculate roughly what a family's normal entitlement would be, using the following scale of needs. Remember that the rent mst be added and that part of the total needs will be met by family allowances.
z Be Husband and wife...c.. 6 13 Children-under pre ere 1 3
5-10 eenceee 1 8
11-15 eeeeses 15
16-17 cesses q But, for many reasons, this calculation will only be rough guide. One clear indication that the wage stop is operating is the fact that the family's supplementary allowance is not increased when, for example, one of the children passes into a higher age group or the rent goes up.
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Whenever you have any grounds for thinking that the family may not be getting its nomal entitlement, it is important to ask for a written explanation of how the supplementary allowance was computed. If the written explanation shows that the allowance is reduced by the wage stop, there are s number of possible grounds of appeals: le The wage stop needs not be applied if there are "exceptional circumstaneces." These might include, for example,