§ Mr. SquireTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a table showing how many claimants of family income supplement pay rent only, rent and rates and rates only, broken down into two-parent and one-parent families at the latest date available.
§ Mr. ScottClaimants for family income supplement are not required to provide details of their housing costs or tenure type, and information of the type requested cannot therefore be derived from data extracted from administrative records. However, it is possible to make some estimates from the family expenditure survey, although because of the small number of sample cases available it is necessary to combine several years' data. On the basis of the FES data for 1983–86 inclusive, 66 per cent. Of family income supplement recipients appear to be tenants, 28 per cent. owner-occupiers and 6 per cent. non-householders. These proportions relate to two-parent and one-parent families combined, and if applied to the latest administrative information on family income supplement caseload (May 1986) would imply :
- 135,000 tenants
- 55,000 owner occupiers
- 15,000 non-householders.
For the two groups separately the proportion of tenants is very similar, but two-parent families contain a rather higher proportion of owner occupiers and one-parent families a rather higher proportion of non-householders.