§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she 209W will publish in the Official Report the numbers of working families with incomes below the supplementary benefit poverty line; and if she will detail the number of (1) wives and (2) children included in these families.
§ Mr. O'MalleyIt is estimated that at December 1973 the number of families with dependent children where the head was in full-time work and whose incomes were below supplementary benefit level was about 50,000, containing about 140,000 children. About 40,000 such families were two-parent families. These estimates are based on Family Expenditure Survey data and are subject to considerable margins of error.
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish in the Official Report the number of low-income families who are subject to a marginal tax rate of (a) 100 per cent., (b) 75 to 99 per cent.; (c) 50 to 74 per cent. and (d) under 50 per cent. on each £1 increase in earnings; and if she will estimate the changes in the number of families so effected by (1) the last Budget changes and (2) the new July family income supplement levels.
§ Mr. O'MalleyThe number of families with children who in August 1974 were theoretically subject to the marginal tax rates referred to is as follows:
- (a) 100 per cent.—50,000.
- (b) 75.99 per cent.—150,000.
- (c) 50–75 per cent.—240,000.
- *(d) under 50 per cent.—about 6 million.
* This number would normally include only those low-income families which failed to claim benefits for which they were eligible.
The assumptions on which this answer is based are given in my reply to the hon. Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) on 1st July.—[Vol. 894, c. 379–80.]
It is not possible on present information to answer the last part of the Question.