HL Deb 15 December 2003 vol 655 cc109-10WA
Baroness Greengross

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many families with one member aged over 50 (i) receive and (ii) are entitled to working tax credit; and of these families how many (i) receive and (ii) are entitled to working tax credit:

  1. (a) with child tax credit;
  2. (b) without child tax credit;
  3. (c) with the childcare element;
  4. (d) with the disability element;
  5. (e) with the severe disability element; and
  6. (f) with the 50-plus element.
[HL155]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey)

The table covers families in work at 3 October 2003. It shows (i) figures for those in receipt of working tax credit (WTC), and (ii) figures for those in receipt of either WTC or of child tax credit (CTC) above the family element (their awards were therefore higher because of the WTC elements).

In-work families with at least one adult aged 50 or over, and in receipt of WTC, or of CTC above the family element (000s).
(i) In receipt of WTC (ii) In receipl of WTC, or of CTC above the familiy element
Total 188 250
a. receiving WTC and CTC 115 115
b. other 73 135
c. also benefiting from the childcare element 2 4
d. also benefiting from the disabled worker element 14 15
e. also benefiting from the severely disabled adult element 13 15

Source:

Modelled current entitlements of a sample of tax credit awards (5 per cent for couples, 10 per cent for single adults). For more details, see Child and Working Tax Credits. Quarterly Statistics October 2003, which can be found on the Inland Revenue website. The 50-plus return-to-work element is available only to people returning to work after 5 April 2003; the latest statistics relate to awards at 3 October 2003, which could substantially underestimate the number who returned to work by that date and will benefit in full. This is because those returning to work after early July 2003 could claim after 3 October and have the element backdated to the return-to-work date. Because of this likely underestimation, figures for the 50-plus element are not provided.

Six million families were expected to benefit from the CTC and WTC by April 2004 and 5.9 million families are already doing so. Of these, 1.35 million families were expected to receive the higher support available through WTC, incuding 250,000 families without children. At 3 October, 1.7 million were receiving WTC. More families than expected are therefore receiving the largest awards so that the most help is going to the families who need it most.

Estimates of the number of families expected to benefit from CTC and WTC broken down by age are not available.