§ Ms BuckTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many households have been taken off(a) Housing Benefit and (b) Council Tax Benefit as a consequence of Working Families Tax Credit and Disabled Persons Tax Credit in (i) the UK and (ii) each region. [125415]
§ Angela EagleThe information is not available in the format requested as the most recent available data for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit relate to August 1999, which is prior to the introduction of the Working Families Tax Credit.
However, we estimate that the introduction of Working Families Tax Credit will move about 90,000 claimants off Housing Benefit in Great Britain in 2000–01, with similar numbers moving off Council Tax Benefit.
Estimates for the effects of the Working Families Tax Credit are based on the Family Resources Survey. This does not have an adequate sample size to produce corresponding estimates for Disabled Persons Tax Credit, since only a small number of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit recipients also received Disability Working Allowance. The reduction in the number of 713W recipients of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit as a result of the introduction of the Disabled Persons Tax Credit is, however, likely to be small.
Regional estimates of the effect of Working Families Tax Credit are not available owing to the small sample sizes in the Family Resources Survey when analysed at a regional level.