Mr Sproat and his charges
Sir: I read Mr lain Sproat's letter (5 March) with the weary feeling one has when reading the totally predictable. I am sure that your readers are not so naïve as to believe his claim about the things that arc said to have resulted from what he calls—with typical hyperbole—his 'social security campaign.' In fact, as I made clear on 29 July last year, most of the actions we are taking were in train before we witnessed the burgeoning of Mr Sproat's interest in social security.
Let us turn to the admissions he claims to have succeeded in extracting. Those who care to read, with more care than Mr Sproat, the many answers I and other Ministers have given him will see that payments are not, in fact, made for some of the items in his catalogue. For others, payments are made only in the most restricted circumstances. DHSS local offices do not, as Mr Sproat implies, give people money to spend on colour televisions, alcohol, cocktail cabinets, etc. It is clear that accurate paraphrases are not Mr Sproat's strong suit.
What is more, those who have studied the social security system over a longer period, and with greater objectivity, than Mr Sproat will know that much of this information, far from being wrung from a secretive and shamefaced Government, has been published long since, for example in the Supplementary Benefits Handbook or, as in the case of the entitlement to benefit of people from abroad, in Acts of Parliament. The main problem has been to persuade Mr Sproat to read the published literature on social security.
Mr Sproat's fine words about common sense, fairness and noble ideals cannot camouflage his indifference to accuracy and to facts which controvert his claims. It came as no surprise, therefore, to find myself accused of the very things which, I suggest, better typify Mr Sproat—'slippery statistics, evasion, half-truths and false suggestions.' This irony would be amusing if the subject itself were not so serious. But Mr Sproat is not conducting a 'social security campaign.' He is leading a smear campaign against a social security system on which, at some stage in their lives, many people in this country depend.
Stanley Orme Minister for Social Security, Department of Health & Social Security, London SE1
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