Supplementary Benefit

Supplementary Benefit was a means-tested benefit in the United Kingdom, paid to people on low incomes, whether or not they were classed as unemployed such as pensioners, the sick and single-parents. Introduced in November 1966, it replaced the earlier system of discretionary National Assistance payments and was intended to 'top-up' other benefits, hence its name. It was paid weekly by the DHSS, through giro cheques and order books, or fortnightly by the Unemployment Benefit Office by giro and cashed at local post offices.

Unemployed people were the largest proportion of claimants, usually those under the age of 18 and had not yet entered employment, or those who had been unemployed longer than twelve months and exhausted eligibility for Unemployment Benefit. Criticism arose because of the apparent lack of sanctions against unemployed claimants and the perception of a benefits culture.

The benefit was abolished and replaced by Income Support on 11th April 1988, as part of a wider overhaul of the benefits system. This was a significant shift in ethos, moving from a benefit based on circumstances that was customisable to take account of factors such as heating and diet needs; to one based on age with very little flexibility.

State benefits in the United Kingdom
Current
  • Attendance Allowance
  • Bereavement Benefit
  • Carer's Allowance
  • Child benefit
  • Child Tax Credit
  • Disability Living Allowance
  • Education Maintenance Allowance
  • Employment and Support Allowance
  • Housing Benefit
  • Income Support
  • Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
  • Local Housing Allowance
  • Pension Credit
  • Personal Independence Payment
  • State Pension
  • Student finance system
  • Working Tax Credit
Former
  • Council Tax Benefit (Now Council Tax Reduction)
  • Incapacity Benefit
  • Severe Disablement Allowance
  • Supplementary Benefit
  • Invalidity Benefit
  • Sickness Benefit
Planned
  • Universal Credit (2013)

Famous quotes containing the word benefit:

    We do not marry for ourselves, whatever we say; we marry just as much or more for our posterity, for our family. The practice and benefit of marriage concerns our race very far beyond us.
    Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)