§ Ms BuckTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what percentage of households in each(a) borough and (b) constituency in London was (i) on income support and (ii) paying tax at the higher rate in 1996–97. [41361]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Benefits Agency does not collect information related to tax payments. This is a matter for the Inland Revenue. The administration of Income Support is a matter for Peter Mathison, Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Peter Mathison to Ms Karen Buck, dated 18 May 1998:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what percentage of households in each (a) borough and (b) constituency in London was (i) on Income Support (IS) and (ii) paying tax at the higher rate in 1996–97.I am unable to comment on tax payments as this is a matter for the Inland Revenue. The benefits information is not available in the format requested as the Benefits Agency (BA) collates statistics for benefit recipients within each BA District. The number of benefit recipients may not equate to the number of households as several customers may share the same address. BA Districts do not correspond to constituency or borough boundaries. The information which is available is contained in the attached table.I hope that this is helpful.
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IS live load BA district May 1996 August 1996 November 19961 February 1997 Leaside 67,652 68,195 43,783 44,057 City East 34,400 33,211 22,511 22,061 Hackney and Islington 62,864 64,260 38,720 38,484 Lea Roding 60,197 60,711 39,626 39,194 Newham 49,086 49,570 33,158 32,652 Barnet 35,496 35,576 24,824 24,784 Neasden 47,909 47,559 30,129 29,854 Ealing 60,686 58,642 41,429 40,935 Euston 79,310 79,381 51,734 50,984 Harrow 34,545 35,477 25,340 25,226
IS live load BA district May 1996 August 1996 November 19961 February 1997 Palace 67,374 68,472 41,588 41,233 London Central 12,668 10,574 8,191 8,078 South West Thames 57,248 54,783 35,642 35,143 Bankside 26,113 26,551 16,632 16,654 North Kent 55,185 54,902 36,426 36,280 Thameside 46,127 46,131 30,461 30,249 South Circular 59,608 63,366 36,419 36,194 Surrey 40,163 37,363 29,496 29,126 Total (London) 896,631 894,724 586,109 581,728 1JSA was introduced in October 1996 Notes:
1. This information has been supplied by the BA Central Data Unit, is provisional and may be subject to change
2. The figures quoted relate to the number of benefit recipients at a given point in time for each quarter in 1996–97
3. The number of recipients may not equate to the number of households as several benefit recipients may share the same address