§ Earl Russellasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to Table 9 of the Income Support Statistics Quarterly Enquiry (August 1996), what was the average number of deductions from income support among those included in the table, what was their combined average amount, and how many were subject to deductions totalling more than £15 per week.
§ Baroness Hollis of HeighamThe information requested is in the tables.
The tables include 408,000 claimants whose current benefit entitlement includes an amount for mortgage interest which is deducted at source and paid direct to the lender, at an average amount of £35.77 per week. If these deductions were omitted from the tables, the average number of deductions per claimant would increase from 1.4 to 1.5. This is because the majority of people whose mortgage interest is paid direct to the lender have only this one deduction. With deductions for current mortgage costs excluded, the average weekly amount deducted (all cases) would fall from £16.40 to £8.74, and the number with deductions of more than £15 would fall from 486,000 to 190,000.