Letter: Social benefits with no room for discretion

Sir: However much one might agree with the Earl Russell that the Child Support Act formula 'must allow an element of discretion', I fear his plea (letter, 28 December) will fall on deaf ears. Government policy for the past 10 years has been to set its face firmly against any kind of discretion and to apply a strict, inflexible formula in all social security matters, as any recipient of income support, family credit or housing/council tax benefit could tell the Noble Lord.

The financial circumstances of one poor pensioner, of one single parent or of one low-income family are as various as the families themselves, but they have all suffered the inequities of what Lord Russell describes as 'formula fetishism' since the mid-1980s. Applicants for house renovation grants and legal aid are similarly treated, and the proposed incapacity benefit will apply a formula of physical and mental incapacity.

It may be that the Government will be persuaded to abandon the formula-based 'common means test' as the basis of child support if it begins to see middle-class men caught by the CSA provisions deserting it in droves. Should this be the case, will Lord Russell and his colleagues make the same plea for the poor, elderly and sick?

Yours faithfully,

PHILIP BOYD

Cheslyn Hay, Staffordshire

28 December