§ Mr. ChisholmTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what percentage of families currently on family credit could receive the maximum amount for child care costs as announced in the Budget, assuming that their income remained the same and their child care costs were £40 or more a week.
§ Mr. Burt[holding answer 21 January 1994]: Families who could receive the maximum amount of help with child care costs in family credit are those with earnings of £109 or more. Lone parents and two-earner couples with a child under 11 who have earnings of £109 or more represent 10 per cent. of the family credit case load—May 1993. Figures for couples where one partner works and the other is incapacitated are not available.
The number of people currently receiving family credit is not a good guide to the number of people who will gain from the disregard of earnings which will extend the range of families eligible for the benefit. The projected numbers receiving the benefit for future years are also higher.
The estimates from the Department's policy simulation model are that 150,000 families will benefit from the child care disregard. Those families who do not benefit from the full value of the child care disregard in family credit may get extra help through the parallel disregard in housing benefit-council tax benefit.