Catalogue description Department of Health and Social Security: Family Income Supplement Claims

Family Income Supplement (FIS) was introduced under the Family Income Supplement Act 1970, and was a non-contributory benefit initially administered by the Supplementary Benefits Commission. It was designed to help those families who were in great need, where the main wage-earner was in full-time work, but the family income was less than it would have been had the family been receiving supplementary benefit. Where a family's income fell below a prescribed level, a FIS benefit equivalent to half the shortfall (subject to a maximum) was payable.

FIS payments also had the effect of benefitting families affected by the "wage stop". (This was the rule that limited supplementary benefit for an unemployed person, so that a claimant's income was no greater when they were in receipt of benefit than when they were in work.) An award of Family Income Supplement entitled recipients to other benefits, such as free welfare foods, free school dinners and rent and rates allowances. Claims for FIS were assessed by a simple test of income, and were administered by the FIS Unit at he Department of Health and Social Security North Fylde central offices, at Norcross, Lancashire.

FIS was initially introduced as a stop-gap benefit, and it was expected that nearly all of the 356,000 families affected by "wage stop" in 1970 would apply for it. By the early 1980s, only about three-quarters of that number had claimed FIS: reasons for this were assumed to include difficulties with the claim process and fear of social stigma. FIS was replaced by Family Credit in 1988.