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22 July 2008 : Column 1190W—continued

22 July 2008 : Column 1191W

22 July 2008 : Column 1192W

Percentage of pensioners living in households with less than 60 per cent. of contemporary median household income after housing costs, by gender and age—Figures are United Kingdom from 2002-03 onwards: Earlier years are Great Britain only
	Gender		Age
	Male	Female	60-64	65-69	70-74	75-79	80-84	85+	All pensioners
Great Britain
1996-97	24	32	21	21	29	36	39	38	29
1997-98	26	31	20	22	30	37	37	38	29
1998-99	26	30	21	21	30	35	37	35	29
1999-2000	24	29	21	22	28	30	39	35	28
2000-01	23	28	21	21	25	31	30	33	26
2001-02	23	27	21	20	27	29	31	31	26
United Kingdom
2002-03	23	25	20	20	24	27	30	29	24
2003-04	18	22	19	18	21	23	24	22	21
2004-05	16	18	18	16	16	19	19	22	18
2005-06	16	18	16	16	16	17	18	22	17
2006-07	17	20	17	16	17	21	21	25	19
Notes 1. Data for Northern Ireland have only been collected since 2002-03, so the information shown is for the United Kingdom from 2002-03 to 2006-07, and for Great Britain for 1996-97 to 2001-02. 2. A pensioner is defined as anyone over state pension age. 3. The income measures used to derive the estimates shown employ the same methodology as the Department for Work and Pensions publication “Households Below Average Income” (HBAI) series, which uses disposable household income, adjusted (or “equivalised”) for household size and composition, as an income measure as a proxy for standard of living. 4. The figures are based on OECD equalisation factors. 5. Numbers of pensioners have been rounded to the nearest 100,000, while proportions of pensioners have been rounded to the nearest percentage point. 6. Small year-on-year movements should be treated with caution as these will be affected by sampling error and variability in non-response.

Pensioners: Social Security Benefits

Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applications for council tax benefit there were in each London borough in each year since 1997. [220776]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available prior to 2001-02. The available information is in the following table.

22 July 2008 : Column 1193W

22 July 2008 : Column 1194W

New council tax benefit claims received each year by London local authorities
Local authority	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Barking	6328	7153	—	4275	5918	6047	5102
Barnet	10686	10261	7368	8501	8775	7235	6595
Bexley	4737	6648	5654	4833	4661	5283	4302
Brent	11547	10123	6061	8842	6785	6050	7866
Bromley	1551	9234	5333	6018	6560	5342	3707
Camden	7561	6864	1461	5367	4534	4983	4320
City of London	162	196	81	159	121	174	149
Croydon	7951	10827	11163	11400	8281	7820	4344
Ealing	13758	15850	14954	12149	8513	3671	7703
Enfield	—	9610	8859	10402	6483	8022	6496
Greenwich	9418	9826	7675	8129	8006	7109	5275
Hackney	18421	15266	3516	13157	8597	9152	8724
Hammersmith and Fulham	6015	4395	6046	2663	4916	4103	3866
Haringey	19495	18356	8479	5713	5328	5377	5258
Harrow	3975	5620	5254	4976	4739	4704	2309
Havering	5160	5370	5215	4877	4461	4567	4266
Hillingdon	8954	8260	5361	5292	4059	5938	6351
Hounslow	—	6147	3925	5775	5233	6191	5704
Islington	7162	10015	8477	7902	5123	5165	7867
Kensington and Chelsea	3721	3895	2069	3697	4672	3385	1601
Kingston upon Thames	3778	3273	3624	3458	2904	3531	3131
Lambeth	—	17003	10802	12377	8545	8378	9186
Lewisham	11076	10634	9049	10591	11269	6570	8316
Merton	6278	5496	4597	4104	5544	4272	4527
Newham	—	14907	10630	10940	10249	8563	6192
Redbridge	5965	6622	5154	5900	6089	5109	4570
Richmond upon Thames	2187	2426	2918	2740	2736	3013	2851
Southwark	14151	16196	14024	12654	9255	9380	5913
Sutton	4609	4473	2629	3211	3303	3656	3465
Tower Hamlets	9852	14977	10102	8838	8260	8738	6516
Waltham Forest	11593	10169	7445	7527	6505	6872	6494
Wandsworth	5809	8516	6200	6043	4440	9739	4722
Westminster	4885	2168	—	—	—	1969	2078
Notes: 1. The total number of new council tax benefit claims consists of successful, unsuccessful, defective and withdrawn claims. 2. Where no data exists they were not supplied by the relevant local authority. 3. The Department is currently making arrangements for local authorities to submit their data where they have not previously done so for 2007-08. Consequently, the figures for 2007-8 are subject to change. Source: Local authority reported performance data

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