§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 3 April 2000,Official Report, column 340W, if he will disaggregate the number of families claiming Family Credit and Working Families Tax Credit by (a) income deciles, (b) each £5,000 of household income and (c) families above and below half average household income. [118231]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 7 April 2000]: For the analyses of families with the Working Families Tax Credit, I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer given on 579W 12 April 2000, Official Report, column 160W. For Family Credit, the latest available estimates are for recipients in 1997–98. The distributions are given in the tables as percentages.
(a) Percentage distribution of families receiving Family Credit by quintile of net equivalised household income, 1997–98 Percentage Before housing costs After housing costs Bottom quintile 41 38 Second quintile 39 44 Third, fourth and top quintile 20 18
(b) Percentage distribution of families receiving Family Credit by £100 band of net equivalised household income, £ per week, 1997–98 Percentage Before housing costs After housing costs 0 to £100 * 18 £100 to £200 63 68 £200 to £300 27 (12) £300+ * *
(c) Percentage distribution of families receiving Family Credit above/below half average net equivalised household income, 1997–98 Percentage Before housing costs After housing costs Above half average income 61 50 Below half average income 39 50 Notes
- 1. The information comes from the "Household Below Average Income" (HBAI) data set for 1997–98, based on the Family Resources Survey, and relate to Great Britain.
- 2. The estimates are presented on household income both Before Housing Costs and After Housing Costs, in line with HBAI conventions.
- 3. All the estimates in the table relate to families in receipt of Family Credit, and are based on their incomes recorded in the survey, not at the time of claim. The are also based on incomes equivalised using the McClements scale. Equivalised incomes are equivalent to cash incomes for couples with no children. The results in table (b) are particularly sensitive to the choice of scale.
- 4. All the estimates are subject to sampling error. Groups have been aggregated due to small sample numbers. In particular, this has led to decile groups being aggregated to quintile groups in table (a). Results are not reliable for cells with small sample sizes: cells with sample sizes under 50 are marked with an asterisk (*). Results for cells based on samples of 50 to 100 benefit units are bracketed.
§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 3 April 2000,Official Report, column 340W, how many of those families claiming Working Families Tax Credit in each month since its introduction would have been entitled to family credit. [118232]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 7 April 2000]: I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer the Under-Secretary of State for Social Security, my hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Angela Eagle), gave him on 3 April 2000, Official Report, column 340W.
580WGiven the difference in income rules in relation to maintenance and the fact that it is not possible to isolate behavioural effects (such as the number of families who may have entered work or increased their hours because Working Families Tax Credit provides a more generous work incentive than Family Credit) it is not possible to determine whether individual Working Families Tax Credit recipients in each month would have been entitled to Family Credit.
§ Miss Geraldine SmithTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reasons it is necessary for claimants of working families tax credit who are paid monthly to provide more evidence of earnings than claimants who are paid weekly. [119739]
§ Dawn PrimaroloWorking Families Tax Credit is based on a snapshot of a family's income immediately before the claim and is paid for a fixed period of 26 weeks. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the period over which normal earnings are considered is representative. For weekly-paid applicants, the set period is six weeks in the seven weeks immediately before the week in which the application is made. For monthly-paid people, the set period is the three months before the application. These periods should provide a representative picture in arriving at the applicant's normal earnings. Although monthly-paid staff are asked to provide evidence of pay over a three month period they need only provide three payslips whereas weekly-paid staff are required to provide six payslips.
§ Ms BuckTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families have been awarded working families tax credit in each local authority area in London. [119829]
§ Dawn PrimaroloUp to the end of March 2000, there had been 76,200 awards made of the Working Families' Tax Credit (WFTC) in the London Government Office Region. Available figures by local authority are given in the table.
581W
Local authority Estimated number of WFTC awards made to end March 20001 Barking and Dagenham 2,100 Barnet 2,000 Bexley 1,400 Brent 3,100 Bromley 2,000 Camden 1,600 Croydon 4,000 Ealing 3,100 Enfield 2,900 Greenwich 2,800 Hackney 3,300 Hammersmith and Fulham 1,200 Haringey 2,500 Harrow 1,400 Havering 2,000 Hillingdon 2,100 Hounslow 2,600 Islington 1,800 Kensington and Chelsea 1,000 Kingston-upon-Thames 700 Lambeth 4,400 Lewisham 3,600 Merton 1,800 Newham 4,500 Redbridge 1,600 Richmond-upon-Thames 700
Local authority Estimated number of WFTC awards made to end March 20001 Southwark 3,300 Sutton 1,800 Tower Hamlets 4,100 Waltham Forest 2,800 Wandsworth 2,300 Westminster and City of London2 1,700 1 All figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. The estimates for constituencies in Great Britain are based on a 5 per cent. sample and are subject to sampling error. For example local authorities with 500 awards could be in the range 300 to 700. 2 A single estimate is given for Westminster and the City of London as there are too few sample cases in the latter for a reliable estimate to be made.