Family Allowances
The first legislative measure for implementing the policy of social security was that which set up a Ministry of National Insurance, and the first measure introduced by the new Minister is the Family Allowances Bill. It is in accordance with the scheme that has been outlined in the White Paper; that is to say, it offers not 8s. a week for each child after the first, as proposed in the Beveridge Report, but 5s. a week ; but this will be supplemented by an extension of the provisihn of free meals and milk for children at school. Actually the total cost of these benefits in kind (£6o,000,000 a year) exceeds the estimated cost of family allowances in the first year (£57,000,000), so that the provision made for dependent children is not very different in substance from that envisaged by Sir William. Thus for the first time the State takes upon itself some of the responsi- sibility for the maintenance of large families. A principle is estab-
lished as important as that which first created old age pensions. Just as those pensions were not in the first place sufficient for the proper maintenance of the aged, so in the case of these allowances for children. They will reduce poverty arising from large families, but it cannot be maintained that they will abolish it. If it were the only amelioiation of circumstances offered to workers to induce them to have more children it may be doubted if it would have consider- able results ; but when added to other meashres which will tend to remove anxiety—greater confidence in continuous employment and ampler benefits if out of work or sick or disabled—it will take its place in a general scheme of security, which will have results psycho- logical as well as economic. None the less the 5s. benefit should be looked upon only as a beginning. If employment policy succeeds in reducing unemployment to a low percentage, money will be available for a more generous programme.
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