HC Deb 17 June 1988 vol 135 cc362-3W
Mr. Frank Field

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services, if he will set out in tabular form the distribution of all supplementary benefit recipients in respect to their relationship to 100 per cent. entitlement along the lines of paragraph 7 of chapter 2 of the "Low Income Statistics" report of a technical review.

4. Mr. Portillo

The information requested is set out in the table:

Distribution of persons in income units receiving supplementary benefit or housing benefit supplement 1983
Relative net resources Per cent, of persons
Less than 100 2.7
100 but less than 105 32.7
105 but less than 110 22.6
110 but less than 120 19.6
120 but less than 140 14.7
Over 140 8
Total 100

Notes:

1. "Persons" in an income unit are defined as a single person or married couple with their dependent children (if any)

2. "Relative Net Resources" are defined in terms of the supplementary benefit scale rate applied to each income unit. The scale rate is defined as 100. Since two sets of scale rates are in use, for pensioners and others, two individuals shown as having income at the same scale level may have significantly different incomes.

3. Percentages do not total to 100 due to rounding.

Source1983 Supplementary Benefit Annual Statistical Inquiry.

Mr. Clay

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a table showing the total number of recipients and dependants on supplementary benefit who were on benefit for one year or more, broken down into the following categories:(a) two-parent families with children, (b) one-parent families with children, (c) pensioners and (d) others, for each year from 1978 to the latest available date.

Mr. Portillo

The information is as follows:

thousands
(a) Two parent families with dependants aged under 19 years (b) One parent families with dependants aged under 19 years (c) Pensioners (d) Others
November 1978 82 238 1,569 646
November 1979 70 225 1,570 615
December 1980 72 227 1,548 634
December 1981 153 267 1,570 882
December 1982 226 306 1,598 1,178
December 1983 260 334 1,494 1.427
December 1984 308 376 1,509 1,633
February 1986 326 447 1,551 1,864
May 1987 318 485 1,566 1,918

Source: Annual Statistical Inquiries.