HC Deb 15 December 1997 vol 303 cc72-3W
Mr. Webb

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will make a statement on the relationship between family credit and the proposed working family tax credit. [19075]

Mr. Field

The Government are proposing a new working families' tax credit with cash paid directly through the wage packet to families on low income. The tax credit will build on the success of family credit and will help ensure that work pays for families with children.

The precise form of the working family tax credit has yet to be decided.

Mr. Rooney

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many claimants in receipt of family credit have total earnings below the lower earnings limit for national insurance contributions; and how many of these are(a) women and (b) lone parents. [20806]

Mr. Keith Bradley

At 31 May 1997 there were 175,000 recipients of Family Credit with earnings below the lower earnings limit. Of these 112,000 were female (main earners), and 88,000 were lone parents.

Notes: 1. Information on the gender of Family Credit claimants is not available, the figure quoted is based on the gender of the main earner. 2. Sample size 5 per cent. of all awards. 3.Figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.

Source: Family Credit Statistics Quarterly Enquiry, May 1997.