§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of people who refuse work because they would receive more on income support. [178229]
§ Mr. Pond[holding answer 14 June 2004]: The information requested is not available.
Lone parents and sick and disabled people can qualify for income support. We have introduced work-focused interviews enabling everyone on income support to take advantage of the increasing opportunities to move into work by, for the first time, offering everyone of working age advice and guidance on the full range of employment programmes.
The national minimum wage and tax credits encourage people to start work by making it pay for them. Together they guarantee a minimum income in work and provide much improved gains through work. The improvements in gains through work have made a substantial contribution to improving labour market outcomes; for example the employment rate for lone parents has increased from 46 per cont. in 1997 to 53 per cent. this year.
We have announced recent measures in the Budget to further improve gains through work for part time workers. We have introduced a disregard in housing benefit and council tax benefit for all tenants working part time (typically lone parents and disabled people) who are eligible for working tax credit which will make them around £10 per week better off.
We have also introduced a child care disregard in housing benefit which is fully aligned with the child care element of working tax credit. This will improve gains through work for families receiving housing benefit who have child care costs.