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Benefits

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of children living in households with no adult in work in (a) each London borough and (b) the UK are (i) in single parent households, (ii) in a household with at least one parent claiming incapacity benefit and (iii) in a household with at least one adult on jobseeker’s allowance; and if he will make a statement. [101797]

Mr. Jim Murphy: The available information is in the table.

Data are only available for Great Britain not for the UK. A London borough has been interpreted as a local
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authority. A workless household is a household containing someone claiming either income support,
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jobseeker's allowance, incapacity benefit/severe disability allowance, or pension credit.

Percentage
	Proportion of children in workless households with:
	A lone parent	At least one parent claiming incapacity benefit	At least one parent claiming jobseeker’s allowance
Great Britain	78	26	8
London local authorities:
City of London	73	23	15
Barking and Dagenham	81	18	8
Barnet	81	18	9
Bexley	86	16	7
Brent	80	19	8
Bromley	84	17	7
Camden	77	20	9
Croydon	84	16	7
Ealing	79	20	8
Enfield	79	20	8
Greenwich	85	15	6
Hackney	80	17	6
Hammersmith and Fulham	84	17	5
Haringey	81	18	7
Harrow	79	21	9
Havering	83	22	6
Hillingdon	83	19	8
Hounslow	81	20	7
Islington	84	17	6
Kensington and Chelsea	80	22	5
Kingston upon Thames	83	18	8
Lambeth	88	12	6
Lewisham	86	15	6
Merton	81	15	11
Newham	75	19	10
Redbridge	76	20	11
Richmond upon Thames	83	19	8
Southwark	87	14	6
Sutton	84	18	7
Tower Hamlets	57	21	19
Waltham Forest	79	17	10
Wandsworth	83	15	8
Westminster	73	29	7
Notes: 1. All figures supplied have been rounded to protect the confidentiality of claimants. 2. All data represent a snapshot in time of claimants on the computer system, and will therefore exclude a very small number of cases that are held clerically. 3. Data represent children dependent on a parent or guardian claiming one or more of the following benefits: incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance, jobseeker’s allowance, income support or pension credit. 4. Due to the introduction of child tax credits in April 2003, information on child dependents are not reliably completed on the benefit computer system. Therefore children have been merged onto IS/JSA/IB/SDA/PC claims from child benefit with permission of HMRC. 5. Partner status refers to cases with a partner recorded on the system only and is not a definitive measure of singles/couples. 6. Incapacity benefit status excludes residual SDA cases. Source: DWP Information Directorate, April 2006

Child Poverty

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many children in the UK have been in absolute low income poverty in each year since 1979-80; and if he will make a statement. [102204]

Mr. Jim Murphy: Specific information regarding low income for Great Britain is available in “Households Below Average Income 1994-95—2004-05”. The survey from which estimates are provided started in 1994-95. There is no data source consistent with the Family Resources Survey for the years prior to 1994-95.

Absolute low income is defined as being below 60 per cent. of 1996-97 median income held constant in real terms. The information in the following table is shown on a before housing costs and an after housing costs basis.

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Number of children living in absolute low income
	Number of children (million)
Financial year	Before housing costs	After housing costs
1994-95	3.3	4.3
1995-96	3.2	4.4
1996-97	3.2	4.2
1997-98	3.0	4.0
1998-99	2.8	3.9
1999-2000	2.4	3.6
2000-01	2.0	3.0
2001-02	1.6	2.5
2002-03	1.5	2.2
2003-04	1.4	2.2
2004-05	1.4	1.9
Source: Family Resources Survey

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the proportion of children in poverty, broken down by age band; and if he will make a statement. [102247]

Mr. Jim Murphy: Low income is defined as being below 60 per cent. of contemporary median income. The information is shown in the following tables, on a before housing costs and after housing costs basis.

Children living in low-income households, by age band before housing costs, 1994-95, 1996-97 and 2004-05
Percentage
Age band	1994-95	1996-97	2004-05
Under 5 years old	22	23	16
5-10 years old	26	27	19
11 years old and over	22	24	22
All Children	23	25	19

Children living in low-income households, by age band after housing costs, 1994-95, 1996-97 and 2004-05
Percentage
Age band	1994-95	1996-97	2004-05
Under 5 years old	33	35	27
5-10 years old	34	36	28
11 years old and over	27	30	27
All Children	31	33	27
Source: Family Resources Survey 2004-05.

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