§ Mrs. MaddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people in(a) the south-west region, (b) the county of Dorset and (c) each district in Dorset were in receipt of family credit in each of the last five financial years. [38165]
§ Mr. Roger EvansThe administration of family credit is a matter for Peter Mathison, chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Peter Mathison to Mrs. Diana Maddock, dated 23 July 1996:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people in the South West Region, the County of Dorset and in each district of Dorset were in receipt of Family Credit (FC) in each of the last five financial years.The information is not available in the format requested. The FC computer system holds records of the total number of claims received, awarded and disallowed on a national basis.Statistics are not kept which are specific to the South West Region or individual towns or areas. However, statistics are available which indicate the number of families in receipt of Family Credit within a BA office area at a particular date. The available information shown in the attached tables relates to the BA's Dorset District which includes the offices at Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth.Information is only available from 1993 as details relating to FC claims are normally destroyed after 18 months.I hope you find this reply helpful.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what is his estimate of(a) the numbers gaining from and (b) the costs of introducing into the calculation for family credit (i) the disabled child's premium, (ii) the disability premium and (iii) the carer premium; [39185]
(2) how many claimants of family credit have a disabled child. [39184]
§ Mr. HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his estimate of the cost of replacing the child care disregard with a cash allowance of the same value payable for(a) each child under five years and 585W (b) each child under 11 years in each of (i) family credit, (ii) disability working allowance, (iii) housing benefit and (iv) control tax benefit. [39002]
§ Mr. EvansThe cost of including an additional cash allowance of £60 a week per child in basic entitlement for family credit, disability allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit is given in the table.
Cost (£ billion) Cash allowance for each child under five years Around 1.8 Cash allowance for each child under 11 years Around 4.7 Notes:
Estimates do not include behavioural effects.
Source:
Figures are based on the 1991–92–93 Family Expenditure Surveys, uprated to 1996–97 levels. Estimates are net of the savings from abolishing the childcare disregard.
§ Mr. HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his estimate of the impact of the child care disregard on the hours worked by claimants of (i) family credit and (ii) disability working allowance. [39003]
§ Mr. HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many claims in total have been made for the child care disregard in respect of (i) family credit and (ii) disability working allowance; and how many have been disallowed for(a) being in receipt of the maximum benefit, (b) child care not being provided by a registered provider, (c) the child being aged over 11 years and (d) being one of a couple where the partner was not incapacitated. [39048]
§ Mr. Evans[holding answer 23 July 1996]: Since October 1994, there have been 77,000 family credit claims and 156 disability working allowance claims where an award of benefit has been made and where there has also been a claim for help with child care charges. Information is not available on claims which have not led to an award of FC or DWA.
Provisional figures for the period up to 30 April 1996 for the number of families who did not receive extra help with child care charges is provided in the table.
Non-receipt of extra benefit from the child care disregard in family credit and disability working allowance Reason for the non-receipt of extra benefit from the childcare disregard Family credit Disability working allowance Receiving maximum FC/DWA 18,000 17 No registered childcare provider 12,000 5 Child aged 11 years or over 3,000 4 Only one partner working at least 16 hours a week (couple cases) 6,000 8 Partner not incapacitated (couple cases) n/a n/a Sources:
1. Five per cent. sample of family credit awards.
2. One hundred per cent. of disability working allowance awards.
Note:
n/a = not available.