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11 Feb 2009 : Column 1980W—continued
Children: Poverty
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many children were living in poverty in (a) the City of Southampton, (b) Test Valley borough, (c) the ceremonial county of Hampshire and (d) the UK in each of the last five years. [254016]
Kitty Ussher: Child poverty statistics, published in the Households Below Average Income series, only allow a breakdown of the overall number of children in relative poverty at Government office region level or for inner or outer London. This means information for city of Southampton, the Test Valley borough and the ceremonial county of Hampshire is not available.
Available information is shown in the following table.
| Number of children living in households with incomes below 60 per cent. of median, 2002-03 to 2006-07, Before Housing Costs, United Kingdom | |
| Number of children (million) | |
| Notes: 1. These statistics are based on Households Below Average Income, sourced from the Family Resources Survey. 2. Small differences should be treated with caution as these will be affected by sampling error and variability in non-response. 3. The reference period for Households Below Average Income figures are single financial years. 4. 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’ series, which uses net disposable household income, adjusted (or “equivalised”) for household size and composition, as an income measure as a proxy for standard of living. 5. Incomes have been equivalised using OECD equivalisation factors. 6. Numbers of children have been rounded to the nearest hundred thousand children. Source: Households Below Average Income, 2006-07 | |
Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of his Department's effectiveness in contributing towards the achievement of the Government's target to abolish child poverty. [252693]
Kitty Ussher: Parental employment is the single biggest determinant of family income and children in out-of-work families are at a high risk of poverty. Work, therefore, continues to be the most sustainable route out of poverty. Our reforms of the welfare system have focused on helping people move into work, and increased employment has played an important role in reducing the number of children in relative poverty by 600,000 since 1998-99.
In particular, we have reduced the number of children in workless households by around 445,000 since 1997. The proportion of children in workless households currently stands at 15.5 per cent., down by 3.3 percentage points since 1997. We have increased the Great Britain lone parent employment rate which now stands at 56.3 per cent. The lone parent employment rate has increased by 11.6 percentage points since 1997 and this translates into an extra 320,000 lone parents in employment.
In addition to these reforms of the welfare system, the reforms we have already made to the child maintenance system, along with our intention to introduce a full child maintenance disregard, will lift over around 100,000 children out of poverty.
However, we recognise that there is more that we need to do, particularly in these turbulent economic times. This is why we are continuing the process of welfare reform and introducing into legislation our commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020.
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many children in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) the Tees Valley and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency were considered to be living in severe poverty in each year since 1997. [254915]
Kitty Ussher: There is no official or agreed definition of severe poverty. The Households Below Average Income series presents a range of low-income thresholds (based on 50, 60 and 70 per cent. of median income).
Child poverty statistics, published in the Households Below Average Income series, only allow a breakdown of the overall number of children in relative poverty at Government office region level or for inner or outer London. This means information for the Tees Valley, and the Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland constituency is not available.
Data are available for England on a single-year basis. Regional data are presented as three-year averages, due to variability in single-year estimates. Figures for England and the North East region looking at the number of children in households below 60 per cent. of median are shown in the following tables. Statistics based on other thresholds are given in the Households Below Average Income publication, a copy of which is available in the Library.
| Table 1: Number of children living in households with incomes below 60 per cent. of median in 1997-98 to 2006-07, Before Housing Costs, England | |
| Number of children (million) | |
| Source: Households Below Average Income, 2006-07 | |
| Table 2: Number of children living in households with incomes below 60 per cent. of median in 1997-98 to 2006-07, Before Housing Costs, North East England | |
| Number of children (million) | |
| Notes: 1. These statistics are based on Households Below Average Income, sourced from the Family Resources Survey. 2. Small differences should be treated with caution as these will be affected by sampling error and variability in non-response. 3. The reference period for Households Below Average Income figures are single financial years. 4. 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’ series, which uses net disposable household income, adjusted (or “equivalised”) for household size and composition, as an income measure as a proxy for standard of living. 5. Incomes have been equivalised using OECD equivalisation factors. 6. Numbers of children have been rounded to the nearest hundred thousand children. Source: Households Below Average Income, 2006-07 | |
Cold Weather Payments
Mr. Ingram: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will publish the professional advice received from the Met Office on the basis of which it was decided that Bishopton weather station was the most appropriate station for the determination of cold weather payments for East Kilbride. [254884]
Kitty Ussher: The advice received from the Met Office is as follows:
“The Cold Weather Payments scheme involves linking groups of postcode areas to weather stations that report to the Met Office on a daily basis. 76 such stations are currently used in the scheme. Each postcode area is linked to a station with the most similar climate in terms of mean winter temperature (mean for 1971-2000). The linkages that have been made also take account of topography, the extent of built-up areas and the distance from available weather stations.
East Kilbride is linked to Glasgow-Bishopton, approximately 15 miles to the north-west. The winter mean temperature at East Kilbride is 3.3 degrees Celsius and at Bishopton it is 3.7 degrees Celsius. An alternative station used in the Cold Weather Payments scheme is Salsburgh, approximately 12 miles north-east of East Kilbride. There the winter mean temperature is 2.6 degrees Celsius. On that basis, the more suitable linkage is Bishopton, which is used for almost all the Glasgow postcodes.”
Community Care Grants
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the maximum sum payable under the Community Care Grant Scheme for provision of a television set is; [254372]
(2) whether applications may be made under the community care grant for funds to purchase a motor vehicle; and if he will make a statement. [254373]
Kitty Ussher: There is no upper limit to the amount that may be awarded for a Community Care Grant. However, discretionary Community Care Grants are awarded within a budgetary framework, and decision makers use a range of prices that reflect this.
An applicant may apply to the Social Fund Community Care Grant scheme for any type of expense including a motor vehicle or television. However, an award may only be made if it contributes sufficiently to the overall aim of supporting care in the community.
Housing Benefit
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he has taken to reform the housing allowance scheme in the last five years; what discussions he has had with local authorities on this issue in the last two years; and if he will make a statement. [255102]
Kitty Ussher:
Local housing allowance was rolled out nationally in April 2008 for customers in the deregulated private rented sector who make a new claim for housing benefit, and for existing customers who move address. It is a new way of calculating the rent element of housing benefit based on the area in which a customer lives and his/her household size. Local housing allowance is paid to the tenant rather than the landlord in most
circumstances. Tenants are able to keep any excess benefit up to a maximum of £15 per week that is over and above the cost of their rent.
Local housing allowance was introduced in nine pathfinder authorities in 2003-04 and was subject to extensive and independent evaluation. A further nine authorities implemented the scheme in 2005 to test operational readiness.
We are closely monitoring how the local housing allowance scheme is working in practice and will undertake a review during the first two years of operation following national rollout.
At Budget 2008 the Government announced a review of the working age housing benefit system. This joint DWP/HMT internal review of housing benefit is looking at the effectiveness of the system, particularly in promoting work incentives, efficiency and fairness and to ensure that it represents value for money for the taxpayer.
The December Welfare Reform White Paper, “Raising expectations and increasing support: reforming welfare for the future” provided a formal update on the review outlining our next steps and the key issues we would like to address.
We also announced our intention to launch a public consultation on housing benefit reform this year, a process which will begin with the publication of a housing benefit reform consultation document.
We meet with local authority representatives regularly, both formally, through statutory liaison with the local authority associations, and through regular liaison with individual local authorities. We often discuss the local housing allowance at these meetings.
Housing Benefit: Essex
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were in receipt of housing benefit in (a) West Chelmsford constituency and (b) Essex in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [254717]
Kitty Ussher [holding answer 9 February 2009]: Housing benefit information is not available at constituency level.
The most recent available information is in the table.
| Number of recipients of housing benefit in Essex, 2003-07 | |||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Notes: 1. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System. Quarterly 100 per cent. case load stock-count taken in August 2003 to August 2007. | |||||
Income Support: Lone Parents
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many lone parents are claiming income support; and how many of those have a youngest child under (a) 12, (b) 10 and (c) seven years of age. [252984]
Kitty Ussher: The information requested is in the table.
| Number of lone parents claiming income support | |
| May 2008 | |
| Note: 1. Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10; some additional disclosure control has also been applied. Source: DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study. | |
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