§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many income-deprived rural wards there were in England and Wales in the last 10 years; and what percentage of wards this was. [60862]
§ Alun MichaelInformation on the percentage of people in receipt of means-tested benefits in rural wards in England is contained in the table.
206W
Percentage of people in receipt of means-tested benefit Number of rural wards Less than 5 102 5 to less than 10 1,271 10 to less than 15 1,317 15 to less than 20 753 20 to less than 25 338 25 to less than 30 168 30 to less than 40 123 40 or more 25 Notes:
1. Analysis of figures for Wales is a matter for the Welsh Assembly Government.
2. Information for other years is not readily available.
3. The benefits and the year to which the data relate are: adults in income support households for 1998; children in income support households for 1998; adults in income based jobseeker's allowance households for 1998; children in income based jobseeker's allowance households for 1998; adults in family credit households for 1999; children in family credit households for 1999; adults in disability working allowance households for 1999; children in disability working allowance households for 1999; non-earning, non-IS pensioner and disabled council tax benefit recipients for 1998.
4. People in receipt of more than one means-tested benefit are counted only once.
5. There is no agreed percentage above which areas are define as income-deprived. The table therefore gives the number of rural wards in each percentage band.
6. There is variation between areas in the extent to which people who are eligible claim means-tested benefits.
Sources:
Figures for numbers in receipt of benefits come from the Department for Work and Pensions and form the basis of the Index of Income Deprivation (a subset of the Index of Multiple Deprivation), Classification of rural wards made by the Countryside Agency.
§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many households in rural areas lived below the poverty line in each of the last 12 years, broken down by constituency. [60865]
§ Alun MichaelInformation on the number of households below average income is not available for rural areas within each constituency. A table containing information on the percentage of people in receipt of means-tested benefit in rural wards in each constituency will be placed in the House of Commons Library.
§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to allocate additional funds for young people through(a) specific grants and (b) the revenue support grant to rural local authorities. [61174]
§ Alun MichaelWe work closely across Government to ensure that policies for children and young people take into account particular rural issues rather than allocating separate funds through such grant mechanisms. Both Sure Start and Connexions are good examples of Government programmes where the identification of specific rural needs have led to the policies being developed in ways that help meet those needs.