§ Mr. RooneyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what percentage of and how many households in the UK are accounted for by(a) married couples with children, (b) cohabiting couples with children, (c) single mothers with children, (d) single fathers with children, (e) single men and women under pension age, (f) single pensioners and (g) pensioner couples; [90326]
(2) what evidence he has of the percentage of (a) men and (b) women who work until pension age without a career break, and of those who have breaks in their careers; and what are the average total time spent out of work for each sex, and the average length of time of each break in career; [90325]
(3) if he will list for the most recent available date the percentage and number of (a) married couples and (b) cohabiting couples in which (i) both work full-time, (ii) both are unemployed, (iii) the man works full-time and the woman works part-time, (iv) the woman works full-time and the man works part-time, (v) both work part-time, (vi) the man works full-time and the woman is unemployed, (vii) the woman works full-time and the man is unemployed, (viii) the man works part-time and the woman is unemployed and (ix) the woman works part-time and the man is unemployed, showing figures separately for those with and without dependent children. [90324]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 8 July 1999]The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
247WLetter from Tim Holt to Mr. Terry Rooney, dated 12 July 1999:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your three recent parliamentary questions (90324, 90325 and 90326) on households, families and career breaks.In answer to your question about couples according to the status of the 'husband' and 'wife' I attach two tables. Table la gives estimates from the spring 1998 Labour Force Survey (LFS) of actual numbers comparing the labour market status of the husband/man with that of his wife/partner for the four different couple types requested. For example, looking at the block for married couples
Table 1a: Working age couples1 according to economic status of head and wife, marital status and presence of dependent2 children United Kingdom, spring 1998 (not seasonally adjusted) Thousand Status of wife/partner Status of husband/man All In employment: All In employment: Full-time In employment: Part-time ILO un-employed3 Inactive4 Married couple without dependent children All 4,195 3,092 1,856 1,236 71 1,033 In employment 3,417 2,760 1,691 1,069 55 602 working full-time 3,226 2,631 1,634 997 48 548 working part-time 190 129 57 72 * 54 ILO unemployed 115 54 31 23 * 53 Inactive 663 278 134 144 * 378 Married couple with dependent children All 5,130 3,562 1,365 2,196 140 1,428 In employment 4,617 3,382 1,279 2,102 111 1,123 working full-time 4,476 3,304 1,243 2,060 104 1,068 working part-time 140 78 36 42 * 55 ILO unemployed 170 56 24 32 18 97 Inactive 343 124 62 62 11 208 Cohabiting couple without dependent children All 1,056 938 824 114 34 85 In employment 964 893 791 102 21 51 working full-time 932 866 771 95 21 46 working part-time 32 27 20 * * * ILO unemployed 36 19 14 * * * Inactive 56 25 18 * * 27 Cohabiting couple with dependent children All 657 388 177 211 38 231 In employment 537 356 163 194 22 159 working full-time 512 344 157 187 21 148 working part-time 25 13 * * * 11 ILO unemployed 67 16 * * 12 39 Inactive 52 16 * * * 33 * Sample size too small for reliable estimate 1 Working age couples are those in which the man is aged 16–64 and the woman is aged 16–59. 2 Dependent children are those aged 0–15, and those aged 16–18 in full-time education. 3 ILO unemployment—The International Labour Office measure refers to people who are without a job, available to start work within two weeks and who had either looked for work in the previous weeks or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained. 4 Inactive—those who are neither in employment nor ILO unemployed are defined as being economically inactive. Source:
Labour Force Survey Household Datasets
248W
Table 1b: Working age couples1 accordling to economic status of head and wife, marital status and presence of dependent2 children United Kingdom, spring 1998 (not seasonally adjusted) Percentage Status of wife/partner Status of husband/man All In employment: All In employment: Full-time In employment: Part-time ILO un-employed3 Inactive4 Married couple without dependent children All 100 74 44 29 2 25 In employment 81 66 40 25 1 14 working full-time 77 63 39 24 1 13 working part-time 5 3 1 2 * 1 ILO unemployed 3 1 1 1 * 1 Inactive 16 7 3 3 * 9 249W
without dependent children you can see that there were 997,000 couples where the husband worked full-time and the wife worked part-time. Table lb shows this information in terms of percentage breakdowns. These analyses have been based on all working age couples i.e. couples where both the husband and the wife are of working age. Working age is defined as 16–59 for women and 16–64 for men.LFS estimates have also been used to answer your question about households by type of household and family (see table 2).Regarding your third question about those reaching retirement age and the incidence and average length of any career breaks they may have taken, I regret that the ONS cannot provide any directly relevant information.
Table lb: Working age couples1 accordling to economic status of head and wife, marital status and presence of dependent2 children United Kingdom, spring 1998 (not seasonally adjusted) Percentage Status of wife/partner Status of husband/man All In employment: All In employment: Full-time In employment: Part-time ILO un-employed3 Inactive4 Married couple with dependent children All 100 69 27 43 3 28 In employment 90 66 25 41 2 22 working full-time 87 64 24 40 2 21 working part-time 3 2 1 1 * 1 ILO unemployed 3 1 0 1 0 2 Inactive 7 2 1 1 0 4 Cohabiting couple without dependent chidren All 100 89 78 11 3 8 In employment 91 85 75 10 2 5 working full-time 88 82 73 9 2 4 working part-time 3 3 2 * * 0 ILO unemployed 3 2 * * 1 Inactive 5 2 2 * * 3 Cohabiting couple with dependent children All 100 59 27 32 6 35 In employment 82 54 25 29 3 24 working full-time 78 52 24 29 3 22 working part-time 4 2 * * * 2 ILO unemployed 10 2 * * 2 6 Inactive 8 2 * * * 5 * Sample size too small for reliable estimate 1 Working age couples are those in which the man is aged 16–64 and the woman is aged 16–59. 2 Dependent children are those aged 0–15, and those aged 16–18 in full-time education. 3 ILO unemployment—The International Labour Office measure refers to people who are without a job, available to start work within two weeks and who had either looked for work in the previous weeks or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained. 4 Inactive—those who are neither in employment nor ILO unemployed are defined as being economically inactive. Source:
Labour Force Survey Household Datasets
250W
Households by type of household and family—Table 2 United Kingdom, spring 1998 (not seasonally adjusted) Thousand Per cent. One person Under pensionable age1 3,266 13.5 Over pensionable age1 3,497 14.4 Two or more unrelated adults 769 3.2 One family Married non-pensioner couples2 All 8,881 36.7 of which with: No children 2,743 11.3 Dependent children3 4,934 20.4 Non-dependent children only 1,203 5.0 Cohabiting non-pensioner couples2 All 1,619 6.7 of which with: No children 930 3.8 Dependent children3 640 2.6 Non-dependent children only 48 0.2 Pensioner couples All 3,219 13.3 of which with: No children 2,859 11.8 Dependent children3 30 0.1 Non-dependent children only 330 1.4 Female lone parents with: Dependent children3 1,363 5.6 Non-dependent children only 559 2.3
Households by type of household and family—Table 2 United Kingdom, spring 1998 (not seasonally adjusted) Thousand Per cent Male lone parents with: Dependent children 156 0.6 Non-dependent children only 146 0.6 At least one family plus others 735 3.0 All households 24,209 100.0 1 Pensionable age is defined here as 60 for women and 65 for men. 2 Non-pensioner couples are those where neither the husband nor the wife is a pensioner. 3 Dependent children are those aged 0–15 and 16–18 year olds in full-time includes those families with both dependent and non-dependent children. source:
Labour Force Survey Household Datasets