Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
With reference to the statement in the Labour Party manifesto that "one in five families has no one working", by what measure that is true, and what is the current level.
§ Lord Simon of HighburyThe labour force survey can produce estimates for families and households with no one in employment. The most common ways of presenting this information are in terms of non-pensioner households and families with dependent children. The major difference in coverage is that non-pensioner households include couples without dependent children and single adult units. Households may also consist of more than one family unit or a combination of family units and individuals/couples. In fact analyses for both non-pensioner households and families with dependent children yield similar results as can be seen in the table below.
56WA
Percentages of families with no one in employment, United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted Non-pensioner households Families with dependent children Summer 1996 17.9 18.8 Autumn 1996 17.7 18.0 Winter 1996–97 17.5 17.6 It is widely accepted that analyses of households with no one in employment should exclude pensioner households. This area of analysis is relatively new for the LFS and the definition of non-pensioner or working age households is not yet firmly established. The table provided is based on the same definition of non-pensioner household as previous responses to parliamentary questions to this topic. The ONS has been assessing the various alternative definitions and expects to publish its recommendations in the September issue of Labour Market Trends.
Similarly there are various alternative definitions of a family. In this case the common definition of a married or cohabiting couple or lone parent with at least one dependent child (i.e. all those aged under 16 and 16–18 year olds who are in full-time education) is used.