Supplementary Benefit

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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. 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 order books, 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 12 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 in April 1988, as part of a wider overhaul of the benefits system.