ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some aspects of the Supplementary Benefits administration in relation to unsupported mothers. As the term ‘Liable Relative Officer’ implies, the Supplementary Benefits administration is as much concerned with the men who are liable to maintain women and children as they are with the women. The numbers of separated and divorced women and single women with illegitimate children in receipt of Supplementary Benefit have been rising very sharply in recent years. Women who have dependent children under sixteen living with them are not required to register for employment. In relation to unsupported mothers, abuse is primarily concerned with undeclared earnings, fictitious or collusive desertion, or cohabitation which is denied. Amongst claimants generally, undeclared earning is much the ‘commonest’ form of abuse.
