§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate how many people in households in the bottom two deciles of household income whose hourly earnings were below the minimum wage level, deflated from the 1999 rate, were receiving each social security benefit, and in what combination, using data from the Family Resources Survey 1997–98; and if he will make a statement. [129955]
§ Mr. BayleyThe information requested is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
The number of individuals who were in the bottom two equivalised income deciles and where the hourly earnings of the head of the family in which they belong would have been below the national minimum wage had it existed in 1997–98, deflated from the 1999 rate is 800,000. The estimate is calculated using data from the 1997–98 Family Resources Survey. Of those 800,000 individuals it is estimated that 290,000 were in receipt of Council Tax Benefit. The sample size of the Family Resources Survey is not large enough to allow reliable estimates to be made of the number within the 800,000 who were in receipt of other benefits.