HC Deb 08 February 2001 vol 362 cc681-2W
Mr. Field

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many claimants are in receipt of working families tax credit while being paid less than the hourly minimum wage. [148749]

Dawn Primarolo

[holding answer 5 February 2001]: This information is not available. It is not possible to establish from the data reported on the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) application form alone whether the applicant was entitled under the relevant legislation to the National Minimum Wage (NMW), and at which rate.

Extra data are obtained for those WFTC applications which indicate that the hourly rate of pay is less than the NMW and are subject to further investigation by NMW officers. However, this process does not yield a reliable estimate of the total number of applicants paid below NMW rates.

Mr. Cox

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many(a) families and (b) children living in the London Borough of Wandsworth on 1 January have benefited from the working families tax credit. [149366]

Dawn Primarolo

For the number of families benefiting in Wandsworth, I refer my hon. Friend to my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Mr. Dawson) on 22 January 2001,Official Report, column 425W.

The publication referred to in that answer also gives the national average number of children per family receiving Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC). The 5 per cent. sample used for these analyses is too small to yield a reliable separate estimate of the average number of children for families receiving WFTC in Wandsworth.

Miss Geraldine Smith

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what is the estimated number of families in Morecambe and Lunesdale failing to claim Working Families Tax Credit; [148971]

(2) how many families in Morecambe and Lunesdale have benefited from the Working Families Tax Credit. [148970]

Dawn Primarolo

For the number of families in Morecambe and Lunesdale benefiting from the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC), I refer my hon. Friend to my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Mr. Dawson) on 22 January 2001, Official Report, column 425W. No estimate of the number eligible for WFTC is available.