ABSTRACT
In the 1970s, a proposed change in social welfare policy in the United Kingdom excited considerable debate. The universal child allowance, which had consisted primarily of a reduction in the amount withheld for taxes from the father’s paycheck, was to be replaced by a cash payment to the mother. An excerpt from the parliamentary debate in Hansard (House of Commons, May 13, 1975) expresses a popular sentiment:
[F]ar from a new deal for families, it will take money out of the husband’s pocket on the Friday and put it into the wife’s purse on the following Tuesday. Far from being a child benefit scheme, it looks like being a father disbenefit scheme.
