HC Deb 27 July 1993 vol 229 cc1011-2W
Ms Corston

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 19 July,Official Report, column 71, for how many households of long-term sick and disabled beneficiaries in the bottom quintile of income after housing costs no estimate is provided; and on how many occasions quantile data on income provided by the Central Statistical Office in recent years have not been published when the 95 per cent. confidence intervals of plus 9 to plus 30, minus 7 to plus 15 and plus 12 to plus 36 apply.

Mr. Burt

I will write to the hon. Member shortly.

Ms Corston

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 19 July,Official Report, column 71, what was the main income at April 1993 prices before and after housing costs, of the poorest quintile and of all households below average income of people who are long-term sick or receiving disability benefits for 1979 and 1990–91.

Mr. Burt

Available estimates are in the table.

Median equivalised household incomes of non-working long-term sick and people declaring receipt of disability benefits (pounds per week).
1979 1990–91
BHC AHC BHC AHC
Bottom Quintile 92 76 96 79
Below average income 133 116 160 143

Notes:

1. The Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset, the Family Expenditure Survey (FES), does not identify all long-term sick or disabled people and its identification of receipt of disability benefits is imperfect. The estimates are susceptible to those imperfections as well as sampling errors. The results in the tables may, therefore, reflect changes in the categories of long-term sick or disabled people identified in the FES as well as changes in the incomes of such people.

2. Reliable estimates of the mean income of people in the bottom quintile of this group and of those in households below average income are not available. Below average income refers to the population average income in the relevant year.

3. Disability benefits counted here are Invalidity Benefit, Mobility Allowance and Attendance Allowance and Severe Disability Allowance (1990–91) or Non-Contributory Invalidity Pension (1979).