§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what baseline figure is to be used in assessing progress in meeting his target of reducing the number of children living in low-income households by at least a quarter by 2004. [71783]
§ Malcolm Wicks[holding answer 22 July 2002]: The baseline used to measure this Public Service Agreement target is 1998–99 Households Below Average Income figures. This target is shared with HM Treasury. Full details of the target, its baseline and how it is measured are contained in a technical note which has been placed in the Library.
The latest available HBAI figures for 2000–01 show that there has been a fall of 0.3 million children on the after housing costs measure and 0.4 million children on the before housing costs measure. Therefore, after a third of the way through monitoring this PSA target we are a third of the way to meeting it.