§ Ms HarmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many lone parents receive Income Support, broken down by constituency. [73474]
§ Angela EagleInformation is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
In August 1998 there were 955,000 lone parents receiving Income Support. Reliable information by parliamentary constituency is not available at present.
Currently, the best estimate for the number of Lone Parents in each parliamentary constituency is based on the number of cases in each Local Authority area whose boundary overlaps that of the constituency. However, this will overstate the number of cases in many areas, as a single Local Authority may overlap several parliamentary constituencies.
It is anticipated that reliable constituency breakdowns for England will become available by the end of March.
Source:
August 1998 Income Support Statistics Quarterly Enquiry, the latest figures available.