HC Deb 11 May 2000 vol 349 cc469-73W
Mr. Leigh

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what percentage of families with dependent children are headed by(a) married couples, (b) cohabiting couples and (c) a lone parent by each type; [121365]

(2) what percentage of dependent children live in families which are headed by (a) a married couple, (b) a cohabiting couple, (c) a parent who has never married, (d) a widowed parent, (e) a divorced parent and (f) a separated parent. [121366]

Miss Melanie Johnson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Edward Leigh, dated 11 May 2000: The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to reply to your recent questions on dependent children and the marital status of heads of families. I am replying in the Director's absence. Estimates of marital status and family composition are available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) household datasets, which are available for the spring and autumn quarters of each year. The latest available LFS estimates of dependent children and the marital status of heads of family units are for the autumn (September to November) quarter of 1999 and are given in the tables attached. The first table gives non-seasonally adjusted LFS estimates of dependent children by the marital status of the head of family unit, the second gives estimate of families with dependent children, again by the marital status of the head of family unit.

Table 1: Dependent children 1 by marital status of head of family—UK, autumn (September-November) 1999
Number
Dependent children in all family units (thousands)= 100 per cent. 14,638
Percentage of dependent children where head of family is:
Married 71.1
Co-habiting 8.7
Single, never married 7.0
Widowed 1.1
Divorced 6.9
Separated 5.2

Table 2: Families with dependent children 1 by marital status of head of family—UK, autumn (September-November) 1999
Number
All families with dependent children (thousands)= 100 per cent. 7,471
Percentage of which headed by:
Married couple 67.9
Co-habiting couple 10.0
Male lone parent 2.2
Female lone parent 19.9
1 Dependent children are defined as all 0 to 15-year-olds and 16 to 18-year-olds in full-time education

Source:

Labour Force Survey, ONS

Mr. Leigh

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of households is headed by a person who is(a) married, (b) cohabiting, (c) single, (d) widowed, (e) divorced, (f) separated and (g) cohabiting with someone of the same sex. [121367]

Miss Melanie Johnson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Edward Leigh, dated 11 May 2000: The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to reply to your recent question about the marital status of heads of households. I am replying in the Director's absence. Estimates of marital status and household composition are available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) household datasets, which are available for the spring and autumn quarters of each year. The latest available LFS estimates of the marital status of heads of households are for the autumn (September to November) quarter of 1999 and are given in the table attached.

Head of household by marital status UK, autumn (September-November) 1999
Number
Total households (thousands)= 100% 24,433
Percentage of which whose head is:
Married 51.3
Cohabiting 7.6
Single 14.7
Widowed 14.1
Divorced 8.5
Separated 3.6
Cohabiting with same sex 0.2

Source:

Labour Force Survey, ONS

Mr. Leigh

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the usual gross weekly household incomes as referred to in table 3.8 of Living in Britain 1998, of households headed by a person who is(a) married with dependent children, (b) married with no children or non—dependent children, (c) cohabiting with dependent children, (d) cohabiting with no children or non—dependent children, (e) a lone mother with dependent children, (f) a

Family type by usual gross weekly household income Population: All families
Married with dependants (%) Married with on dependants (%) Cohabiting no dependants (%) Cohabiting no dependants (%) Lone mother with dependants (%) Lone father with dependants (%) Lone parent no dependants (%) Single person (%) Same Sex Total (%)
Nil 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 3 2 1
£0.01-£50.00 1 1 1 0 1 2 0 3 2 1
£50.01-£100.00 1 1 3 2 26 27 4 23 2 10
£100.01-£150.00 2 9 5 3 24 15 7 15 2 10
£150.01-£200.00 3 10 6 4 13 8 7 11 2 9
£200.01-£250.00 3 8 5 5 8 13 15 9 2 7
£250.01-£300.00 4 8 9 3 7 0 8 6 2 6
£300.01-£350.00 6 6 7 7 6 2 15 6 2 6
£350.01-£400.00 6 6 8 6 4 3 6 5 2 5
£400.01-£450.00 8 6 9 5 2 7 4 4 2 5
£450.00-£500.00 8 5 9 6 3 3 4 3 2 5
£501.01 or more 58 39 37 57 6 20 29 13 2 32
Total cases 1,571 2,332 224 338 542 60 206 2,759 32 18,064
1 Bases exclude cases where income is not known
2 These are number of cases and not percentages as the total number of cases is too small for reliable analysis

Source:

General Household Survey 1998

Mr. Leigh

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the percentage of women with a child aged(a) four years or under, (b) between five and nine years and (c) between 10 and 15 years who (i) work full-time, (ii) work part-time, (iii) are unemployed and (iv) are economically inactive. [121325]

Miss Melanie Johnson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Edward Leigh, dated 11 May 2000: The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to reply to your recent question about the economic status of women with young children. I am replying in the Director's absence. Estimates of economic status are available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which is the major ONS source of labour market data

lone mother with no children or non-dependent children, (g) a lone father with dependent children, (h) a lone father with no children or non-dependent children, (i) a single person, (j) a same sex couple and (k) not in any of the categories above. [121319]

Miss Melanie Johnson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Edward Leigh, dated 11 May 2000: The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to reply to your recent question about the usual gross weekly household income according to the status of the head of the household. I am replying in the Director's absence. The attached table shows data from the General Household Survey. The GHS is a continuous, multi-purpose survey based on a random sample of the general population resident in private households in Great Britain. It has been carried out by the Social Survey Division of ONS since 1971, and is commissioned by a number of Government Departments and is widely used for policy and planning purposes. Interviewing took place during the period April 1998 to March 1999. Interviewers collected information from 15,853 adults aged 16 and over in 8,636 households. on individuals. The table attached gives non-seasonally adjusted LFS estimates of the economic status of women of working age (16-59 years) with young children in the winter (December to February) quarter of 1999–2000. People aged 16 or over are classed as in employment by the LFS if they have done at least one hour of paid work (as an employee or self-employed) in the week prior to their LFS interview or if they are temporarily away from their current job. People who do unpaid work in a family business and people on Government-supported training and employment programmes are also included according to the International Labour Organisation convention. Classification by whether a person works full or part-time is based on the respondent's own assessment. The measure of unemployment derived from the LFS is defined on a consistent and internationally recognised basis set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It counts as unemployed people who are a) without a paid job, b) available to start work within the next two weeks and c) have either looked for work in the last four weeks or are waiting to start a job already obtained. People aged 16 or over are classed as economically inactive by the LFS if they are not in employment and do not satisfy the criteria for ILO unemployment. This includes those who want a job but who

Women aged 16-59 by economic status and age of youngest de pendent child—UK Winter 1999–2000 (not seasonally adjusted)
Percentage
With youngest dependent child aged
All women 0-15 0-4 5-9 10-15
All women (thousands = 100 per cent.) 17,277 6,913 3,050 1,977 1,885
All in employment1 68.8 63.3 52.9 68.8 74.3
—part-time2 39.0 24.6 18.3 23.9 35.3
—full-time2 29.7 38.7 34.6 44.9 39.0
ILO unemployed 3.8 3.9 3.7 4.4 3.6
Economically inactive 27.5 32.9 43.4 26.8 22.1
1 Includes those who did not say whether they worked full or part-time.
2 Classification based on respondent's self-assessment.

Source:

Labour Force

Survey, ONS

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