§ Ms BuckTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate how many children have been lifted out of poverty in each region of England since 1997; and what this represents as a percentage of children in each region. [17770]
§ Dawn PrimaroloPersonal tax and benefit measures introduced since 1997 have lifted 1.2 million children in the UK as a whole out of poverty, defined as 60 per cent. of median income after allowing for housing costs. Because of the margins of error, it is not possible to model the precise effects in individual counties or regions.
It is possible to provide figures for the numbers of families in different regions benefiting from the key measures introduced during the last Parliament to tackle child poverty. The table shows, by region, the number of families benefiting from the Working Families Tax Credit, the number of lone parents on Income Support benefiting from the real terms increases in child credits, and the number of families with children benefiting from the real terms increases in child benefit.
Thousand WFTC recipients1 Lone parents receiving income support1 Families receiving child benefit2 North East 72 48 320 North West 179 123 863 Yorkshire and the Humber 137 79 618 East Midlands 101 54 512 West Midlands 127 81 660 East of England 87 64 639 London 95 168 871 South East 118 86 945 South West 103 56 565 England 1,109 758 5,994 1 May 2001 2 27 April 2001