HC Deb 24 July 1978 vol 954 cc538-9W
Mr. Lawson

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the number of families both one-parent and two-parent who were in full-time work and earning less than supplementary benefit level for each year since 1945.

Mr. Orme

The table below gives estimates of (a) the numbers of two-parent and one-parent families with children at the end of the years 1972 to 1976; and (b) the numbers of two-parent families at the end of 1970 and 1971; where the family head was under pension age and in full-time employment, or in full-time or part-time self-employment, and the

NUMBERS OF FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN AND WITH INCOMES BELOW SUPPLEMENTARY BENEFIT LEVEL
FAMILY HEAD IN FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT OR SELF-EMPLOYED
GREAT BRITAIN
Year Two-parent families One-parent families All families
1970 … … … 60,000 * *
1971 … … … 60,000 * *
1972 … … … [40,000] [10,000] 50,000
1973 … … … [40,000] [10,000] 50,000
1974 … … … 60,000 [10,000] 60,000
1975 … … … 100,000 [10,000] 110,000
1976 … … … 170,000 [10,000] 170,000
* Not available.

Notes:

1. All figures are rounded to the nearest 10,000. Consequently, the sum of the component parts may not equal the totals.

2. The estimates are based on a Department of Health and Social Security analysis of incomes and other information recorded by respondents to the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) for 1976. The estimates are subject to sampling error; those figures in square brackets are subject to very considerable proportionate sampling error.

3. These estimates relate only to the population living in private households; families and persons [...]n institutions are not sampled in the FES.

4. The supplementary benefit level is taken as being the supplementary benefit scale rate(s) appropriate to the family, using the long term rates for pensioners only. Income refers to net income less net housing costs less work expenses where appropriate.

5. The comparison is based on the family's normal income in the normal employment situation of the family head. For example, where the head of the family had been off work due to sickness or unemployment for less than three months at the time of the survey, the family's normal income when the head was at work was used in determining the level of income.

6. The 1976 estimates of families with incomes below the supplementary benefit level are directly comparable with those for 1975 and 1974 but not with those for 1972 or 1973. In earlier years it had been assumed that the income distribution of the self-employed was the same as for other employees. Self-employed sample records were included in the analysis in 1974 for the first time and this has been repeated in 1975 and 1976. The figures on the self-employed are especially liable to error because their incomes recorded in the FES tend to be particularly low in relation to their recorded expenditure. This discrepancy is partly due to the incomes of the self-employed being recorded in many cases for a much earlier period than that to which their expenditure relates and the data in the tables for 1975 and 1976 have been adjusted to take account of this.