§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, (1) pursuant to the Green Paper, Cm 3805, "New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare", page 82, what is the proportion of working age people living in workless households at present; and what it was in April 1997 and March 1998; [54606]
(2) pursuant to the Green Paper, Cm 3805, "New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare", page 84, what is the proportion of children living in workless households at present; and what it was in April 1997 and March 1998. [54596]
§ Ms HewittThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Steven Webb, dated 31 July 1998:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary questions about proportions of people living in workless households.The ONS defines workless households as those where there is no one in employment and normally applies this where there is at least one person of working age.Estimates from the quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS) giving the proportion of working age people and dependent children living in workless households are shown in the table.ONS will shortly be releasing LFS Household Datasets, designed specifically for analysis at household level, which will enable improved estimates of these measures to be produced. The figures given should therefore be regarded as provisional, and I will send you estimates based on the LFS Household Datasets when they are available. An article describing these new datasets will be published in Labour Market Trends on 6 August and will be available in the House of Commons Library.The LFS is a household survey and therefore the institutional population is largely excluded apart from students in halls of residence who are sampled via their parental home and staff in NHS accommodation who are sampled separately.
Proportions of people living in workless households Spring 1997 Spring 1996 Percentage of people of working age living in workless households1 13.6 13.4 Percentage of dependent children2 living in working age households who live in workless households1 18.2 18.5 1 Households where there is at least one person of working age (men aged 16–56, women aged 16–59) and there is no one in employment 2 All aged 0–15 and 16–18 year olds in full-time education Source:
ONS, Labour Force Survey
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§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Green Paper, Cm 3805, "New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare", page 83, what is the non-Governmental proportion of personal savings and insurance at present; and what it was in April 1997 and March 1998. [54609]
§ Ms HewittThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Steven Webb, dated 31 July 1998:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question on personal savings and insurance.63 per cent. of contributions for social insurance were paid to non-governmental schemes in 1996 (the latest period for which information is available).The figures underlying these calculations are:
£ billion Contributions to life assurance and pension funds 36.8 Individual premiums for life policies 42.9 Social Security contributions 46.3 Total contributions 126.0