§ Mr. Hancockasked the Prime Minister if she will introduce changes in the tax and benefit systems to seek to remove many one-parent families with young children from the poverty trap.
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§ The Prime MinisterChanges are already embodied in the Social Security Act 1986 which will benefit all low-paid workers with children, including single parents, who might be affected by the poverty trap. The calculation of family credit (a new benefit for working families replacing family income supplement) and housing benefit on a net rather than a gross income basis, will mean that workers will no longer find that higher earnings can leave them worse off because of reduced income-related benefits. The future of the additional personal (tax) allowance is considered in the Green Paper "The Reform of Personal Taxation" (Cmnd. 9756) and we are considering the responses to this process of consultation.