Britain has never had a Minister for the Family and the Minister for Women is a creation of the new Labour government. Nor does it have a coherent family policy, governments generally preferring not to intervene directly in family matters (Kammerman and Kahn, 1980). However, at various times, governments have accepted the fact that children increase the risk of families suffering poverty and have introduced policies to raise family incomes. They have also responded, if sometimes reluctantly, to social problems associated with new family forms, typically targeting specific population groups and relying on fiscal and benefit measures rather than promoting an explicit family policy.

It is apparent from earlier chapters that the growth in benefit claims from families with children was influenced by the activities of many social institutions other than social security: moral authorities including the church and other opinion leaders, the legal profession and employers were all agents of change. Space limits consideration in this chapter to key changes in social security policy that have impacted most directly on the numbers of parents and children receiving benefit.

Child Benefit and One Parent Benefit

The one single policy change that most increased the number of families receiving benefit was the introduction of Child Benefit in 1977.