§ Mr. Chris SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Hornchurch (Mr. Squire),Official Report, 29 June, column 269, whether he intends to take any steps to 506W ensure that the single homeless living in hostel accommodation who are in full-time training and work placements do not experience a 100 per cent, taper on their earnings, if they earn more than £5 a week;
(2) if he will give his current estimate of the number of social security recipients living in hostel accommodation who undertake full-time training or work placements and have a 100 per cent, taper on their earnings, under the provisions of the Social Security Act 1986;
(3) which social security recipients, other than the single homeless living in hostel accommodation and undertaking training or work placements have a 100 per cent, taper on their earnings.
§ Mr. ScottSingle people who are working fewer than 24 hours a week will have the first £5 of any earnings disregarded, or £15, if they have an underlying entitlement to the disability or lone-parent premium in income support. The number of income support recipients living in hostels and whose part-time earnings exceed their earnings disregard is not known. Each spouse in a married couple unemployed for less than two years has a part-time earnings disregarded of £5. Couples unemployed for more than two years have a combined disregard of £15. Any income support recipient or dependant whose part-time earnings exceed his or her disregard has those earnings taken fully into account. We have undertaken to monitor the effects of the earnings disregards and to consider their implications. People who are in remunerative work for 24 hours or more a week are not entitled to income support. No full-time workers now experience combined income tax and benefit withdrawal rates of 100 per cent, or more.