HC Deb 29 February 1996 vol 272 cc707-8W
Mr. Morley

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the effect on public revenues in 1996–97 and 1997–98 of replacing the child care disregard under family credit with a credit of the same cash value, upto a maximum of £42 to be added to the applicable amount of families with paid child care. [18237]

Mr. Roger Evans

The estimated cost of replacing the family credit child care disregard with a credit of the same cash value up to a maximum of £42 a week is £25 million for 1996–97 and 1997–98. This does not allow for behavioural effects.

Notes:

  1. 1. Estimates are based on family expenditure surveys, uprated at 1996–97 and 1997–98 levels of prices, earnings and benefit rates, adjusted using the 1993–94 family resources survey data on the use of childcare.
  2. 2. Estimates are rounded to the nearest £5 million.

Mr. Steinberg

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the effect on public revenues in 1996–97 and 1997–98 of extending entitlement to social fund(a) community care grants, (b) budgeting loans and (c) cold weather payments to families in receipt of family credit. [18244]

Mr. Evans

Since the discretionary social fund is cash limited, extending eligibility to community care grants and budgeting loans to families in receipt of family credit without increasing the cash limit would result in a higher rate of refusals but no extra cost, other than for the administration of any additional applications.

Alternatively, if the cash limit were increased in proportion to the number of families receiving family credit compared with those receiving income support, assuming the same level of demand is met and comparable eligibility conditions apply, we estimate that an increase would be required to (a) the community care grants budget and to (b) the net amount available for budgeting loans as shown in the table. However, in a discretionary scheme there would be no guarantee that additional expenditure would all go to family credit recipients.

It is not possible to estimate the additional cost of cold weather payments, since the number of payments, being dependent on the weather, varies hugely and unpredictably from year to year. However, we estimate that the total number of eligible people and administration costs would be increased by roughly 10 per cent.

£ million
1996–97 1997–98 Administration costs, yearly
(a) Community care grants 10 10 2
(b) Budgeting loans 15 7 5

Mr. Bradley

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the current numbers and proportions of family credit recipients who are(a) lone parents, (b) one-earner couples and (c) two-earner couples. [18096]

Mr. Evans

The information is set out in the table:

Number of cases Percentage
All FC recipients 626,000 100
Lone parents 277,000 44.2
One earner couples 323,000 51.7
Two earner couples 27,000 4.2

Note: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand and percentages to one decimal place.

Source:

Family Credit Statistics Quarterly Enquiry July 1995.

Mr. Martlew

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the effect on public revenues in 1996–97 and 1997–98 of(a) ignoring a spouse's earnings entirely for the purpose of calculating entitlement to family credit and (b) aligning the treatment of a spouse's earnings for the purpose of calculating entitlement to family credit with the rules which apply to a spouse's earnings under the invalid care allowance. [18112]

Mr. Evans

The structure of family credit in effect provides a disregard of the first £73 of earned income in the household. The estimated cost of introducing a further complete disregard for spouses' earned income in family credit is £235 million for 1996–97 and £240 million for 1997–98.

Because of the different structures of invalid care allowance and family credit, it is not possible to estimate the costs of applying a disregard structure similar to that in invalid care allowance to family credit.

Notes:

  1. 1. Estimates are based on the family expenditure surveys of 1991, 1992 and 1993, and family credit quarterly enquiry statistics (July 1995) uprated to 1996–97 or 1997–98 prices and benefit levels.
  2. 2. Estimates of costs are rounded to the nearest £5 million.

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