HC Deb 02 February 1998 vol 305 cc498-9W
Mr. Willetts

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will provide a break-down of family credit recipients by gender in the last year for which figures are available. [26251]

Mr. Keith Bradley

757,000 families are currently in receipt of Family Credit. Of these, 14,300 families are headed by a male lone parent and 336,400 by a female lone parent. The vast majority of couple families have a female recipient as there is a requirement for the female member of a couple to be the claimant. There are, however, occasional exceptions to this rule, for example, to cover mental incapacity.

Source:

1. Family Credit 5 per cent. sample of all awards.

Notes:

1. All figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.