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Earnings Statistics

Mr. Moore: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what is the percentage of full-time workers in (a) Scotland, (b) each of the unitary local authority areas in Scotland and (c) Great Britain whose earnings on the basis of gross pay, (a) including and (b) excluding overtime were less than (i) £272.07 per week, (ii) £249.53 per week, (iii) £187.15 per week and (iv) £140 per week for the categories: (1) male manual, (2) male non-manual, (3) all male workers, (4) female manual, (5) female

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non-manual, (6) all female workers, (7) all manual, (8) all non-manual and (9) all workers at the latest date for which figures are available; [115789]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Michael Moore, dated 27 March 2000:



    The New Earnings Survey (NES) can provide earnings data for small geographical areas. However, the release of NES data is restricted to figures that are derived from a sufficiently large sample of employees, and have an acceptable level of accuracy. I have provided the available data for Scotland, the unitary authorities in Scotland and Great Britain in the attached tables. These are based on the 1999 NES, the latest survey for which data are available. These are large tables and copies of them are being placed in the Library of the House rather than reproduced in Hansard.


    The NES is based on a one per cent sample of employees in the PAYE system and is therefore likely to under-represent relatively low paid staff earning below the tax threshold and in particular those who work part-time.

Working Families Tax Credit

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much he estimates will be spent in (a) 1999-2000 and (b) 2000-01 on the Working Families Tax Credit broken down between (i) basic tax credit, (ii) 30 hour tax credit, (iii) the child tax credits, broken down by age of child and (iv) the childcare tax credit. [115284]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 20 March 2000]: It is not possible to provide a split of total expenditure between types of credit. The amount of award payable is reduced for families whose incomes are above the threshold, and this reduction is applied to the total value of all credits taken together.

Dr. Jack Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the take-up rate for Working Families Tax Credit in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland; and if he will make a statement. [115143]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 20 March 2000]: It is estimated that 7,600 families in Cumbria had been awarded the Working Families Tax Credit by the end of February 2000, of which 1,100 were families in Copeland.

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in Morecambe and Lunesdale have benefited from Working Families Tax Credit since its introduction. [115715]

Dawn Primarolo: It is estimated that 1,800 families in the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency have been awarded the Working Families Tax Credit by the end of February 2000.

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Mr. Kidney: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many residents of Stafford constituency have (a) applied for and (b) received working families tax credit; and what has been the average award. [115569]

Dawn Primarolo: It is estimates that 1,400 families in the Stafford constituency have been awarded the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) by the end of February 2000.

It is not possible to provide a reliable estimate of the average value of these awards. However, for the United Kingdom as a whole the average value of WFTC awards made up to the end of February 2000 was £71.48 per week, and for the West Midlands region the average was £72.42 per week.

Ms Harman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many families with children in Southwark he estimates are eligible for working families tax credit; [114840]

Dawn Primarolo: It is estimated that 2,800 families in Southwark have been awarded the Working Families Tax Credit by the end of February 2000.

Nationally, about 10 per cent. of awards of Working Families Tax Credit include a child care tax credit. There are too few cases in the 5 per cent. sample used for these analyses to provide a reliable estimate of the number of awards with a child care tax credit in Southwark.

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what was the annual expenditure by Government on (a) working families tax credit and (b) childcare tax credit in Norwich in each of the last five years; [115100]

Dawn Primarolo: It is estimated that 2,400 families in Norwich have been awarded the working families tax credit by the end of February 2000. Nationally, about 10 per cent. of awards of working families tax credit include a childcare tax credit. There are too few cases in the 5 per cent. sample used for these analyses to provide reliable estimates of the number of awards with a childcare tax credit in Norwich, or of expenditure on awards in Norwich.

Tax Credits

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total cost of the (a) information packs and (b) videos that have been sent to those employers who are expected to administer the Working Families Tax Credit and the Disabled Persons Tax Credit. [113585]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 8 March 2000]: Information packs and videos have been produced by the Inland Revenue as part of a comprehensive programme of support for employers involved in administering the Working Families Tax Credit and the Disabled Persons Tax Credit. The total cost of adding tax credits material

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to the information packs already being sent to employers is £533,000. The total cost of making the video, and of sending a copy directly to smaller employers likely to benefit most from it, is £702,000.

Costs are inclusive of Value Added Tax.

National Insurance Contributions Office

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to subject the National Insurance Contributions Office to legal obligations equivalent to those imposed on employers by the Pensions Act 1995. [115982]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 23 March 2000]: There are no such plans.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the amount of money which the National Insurance Contributions Office will pay in the age-related element of the NIC rebate to contracted-out money purchase schemes for the financial year 1999-2000; how much of that sum has so far been paid into schemes by the National Insurance Contributions Office; and if he will make a statement. [115981]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 23 March 2000]: The overall amount of age-related rebates paid into the financial year 1999-2000, up to and including 1 March 2000, is £2,348,720,798. This amount includes rebates for personal pension and contracted-out money purchase schemes. The amount of rebates paid solely to contracted-out money purchase schemes in the 1999-2000 financial year is not currently available. All of the amount above has been paid to schemes, except £131,360,489 million that will be paid on 3 April 2000.

Disabled Person's Tax Credit

Mr. Ennis: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many disabled people in (a) Barnsley and (b) Doncaster have benefited from the disabled person's tax credit since its introduction. [115198]

Dawn Primarolo: 107 people in Barnsley, and 140 people in Doncaster, have been awarded the Disabled Person's Tax Credit by the end of February 2000.

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