Family Credit (Hansard, 17 February 1998)

HC Deb 17 February 1998 vol 306 cc615-6W 615W

§ Mr. Willetts
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the average value of a weekly family credit payment; and what is the average estimated value of weekly family credit payments to which people are entitled but which they do not claim. [30038]

§ Mr. Keith Bradley
The latest available information on the take-up of Family Credit is for 1995–96. The average estimated value of weekly Family Credit payments to which people were entitled but did not claim was £24.30.¹ At that time, the average award of Family Credit was £54.82².
The most recent estimate of the average weekly award of Family Credit of £59.01³ was for August 1997.
Sources:
¹Income Related Benefits Estimates of Take-up 1995–96.
²Family Credit 5 per cent. sample of awards.
³Family Credit Statistical Inquiry, August 1997. 5 per cent. sample of awards.

§ Mr. Willetts
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people claimed family credit; how many people are estimated to be entitled to family credit but have not claimed it; what was the total amount of family credit payments paid; and what was the estimated value of unclaimed family credit in the last year for which reliable data are available. [30037]

§ Mr. Keith Bradley
The latest available information on the take-up of Family Credit is for 1995–96. It is estimated that 240,000¹ families were entitled to Family Credit but did not claim it. At that time, there were 676,000² families receiving Family Credit. Expenditure was £1,740³ million and the estimated value of unclaimed Family Credit was £300⁴ million.
The most recent estimate of caseload is for August 1997 when 757,000⁵ families were receiving Family Credit.
Sources:
¹Income Related Benefits Estimates of Take-up 1995–96.
²Family Credit 5 per cent. sample of awards. Figures rounded to the nearest thousand.
³The 1997 DSS Departmental Report (Cm 3613).
⁴Income Related Benefits Estimates of Take-up 1995–96.
⁵Family Credit Statistical Inquiry. August 1997. 5 per cent. sample of awards. Figures rounded to the nearest thousand.

§ Mr. Willetts
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many men receive family credit payments; and if he will express this figure as a proportion of all family credit payments. [30039]

§ Mr. Keith Bradley
757,000¹ families receive Family Credit of which 351,000¹ are lone parents. 336,400 of those lone parents are female and 14,300 (4 per cent.) are male. Information on the gender of the claimant in couple families is not available.
616W
However, the vast majority of couple families have a female recipient as there is a requirement for the female member of a couple to be the claimant. There are occasional exceptions to this rule, for example, to cover mental incapacity.
¹All figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
Source:
Family Credit 5 per cent. sample of all awards.