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25 Feb 2010 : Column 737W—continued

Poverty

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many families were classed as living in poverty in each financial year since 1996-97. [313163]

Helen Goodman: The requested information is given in the following table.

25 Feb 2010 : Column 738W

Total number of families, and number and proportion of families living in households with less than 60 per cent. of contemporary median income, 1996-97 to 2007-08, Great Britain
		Proportion living in low income households		Number living in low income households
	Number of families (million)	Before housing costs (percentage)	After housing costs (percentage)	Before housing costs (million)	After housing costs (million)
1996-97	28.9	19	25	5.4	7.3
1997-98	29.1	19	24	5.5	7.0
1998-99	29.3	19	24	5.4	7.0
1999-2000	29.4	19	24	5.5	7.0
2000-01	29.5	18	23	5.5	6.8
2001-02	29.7	18	22	5.4	6.6
2002-03	29.8	18	22	5.5	6.7
2003-04	30.1	18	21	5.4	6.4
2004-05	30.3	17	20	5.2	6.1
2005-06	30.7	18	21	5.5	6.5
2006-07	30.9	18	22	5.6	6.7
2007-08	31.1	19	22	5.8	6.8
Notes: 1. These statistics are based on Households Below Average Income, sourced from the Family Resources Survey. Both of these documents are available in the Library. 2. Small changes 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. Figures correspond to Great Britain only, because prior to 2002 these are the only figures available and so this shows the full run on a consistent basis. 5. 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. 6. For the Households Below Average Income series, incomes have been equivalised using Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) equivalisation factors. 7. A family is defined as a single adult or couple living as married (including same sex partners from January 2006) and any dependent children. 8. Number of families in low-income households have been rounded to the nearest hundred thousand families and proportion of families have been rounded to the nearest per cent. Source: Households Below Average Income, DWP

Social Security Benefits: Armed Forces

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when she expects to publish guidance on entitlement to national insurance credits for spouses of members of HM armed forces on the direct.gov website. [318428]

Angela Eagle: Legislation which provides for a new National Insurance credit for the accompanying spouse or civil partner of a member of Her Majesty's forces, who is on an assignment outside the United Kingdom, is currently going through the legislative process and will come into force from 6 April 2010.

The associated guidance, which includes information as to who will benefit from this change is currently being produced and will shortly be made available via the appropriate routes including direct.gov.

Social Security Benefits: Disabled

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) incapacity benefit and (b) employment and support allowance claimants there were in (i) Ashford constituency and (ii) Kent on the latest date for which figures are available. [313514]

Jonathan Shaw: The information is in the following table:

25 Feb 2010 : Column 739W

Number and proportion of incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance and employment and support allowance claimants in the Ashford constituency and Kent in May 2009
	Incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance		Employment and support allowance
	Number of claimants	Proportion of working age population as a percentage	Number of claimants	Proportion of working age population as a percentage
Ashford constituency	2,940	4.4	430	0.6
County of Kent	43,660	5.2	5,580	0.7
Notes: 1. Caseload has been rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Percentages are shown to one decimal place. 3. Employment and support allowance replaced incapacity benefit and income support paid on the grounds of incapacity for new claims from 27 October 2008. 4. The proportion of claimants shown for the Ashford constituency is a percentage of the whole of the Ashford constituency's working age population. 5. The proportion of claimants shown for the County of Kent is a percentage of the whole of the county of Kent's working age population. 6. The county of Kent includes the following local authorities: Ashford, Canterbury, Dartford, Dover, Gravesham, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Shepway, Swale, Thanet, Tonbridge and Malling, Malling, Tunbridge Wells. Source: DWP Information Directorate.

Social Security Benefits: Ex-servicemen

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2010, Official Report, column 447W, on social security benefits: ex-servicemen, if she will take steps to ensure that local authorities implement a full disregard of all war pensions in considering eligibility for housing and council tax benefits. [318430]

Helen Goodman: The Government recognise the special nature of war pensions and will continue to do so. War pensioners are given preferential treatment through the generous system of mandatory disregards in the income-related benefits, including housing benefit and council tax benefit.

Under long-standing arrangements, local authorities have additional powers to disregard all or part of the remaining war pension when assessing housing benefit and council tax benefit entitlement as part of their local discretion.

Local authorities operating a local discretionary disregard in addition to the mandatory disregard of war pensions meet the majority of the costs but, since 2004, receive a contribution in their benefit subsidy in recognition of this.

The Government have no plans to amend legislation to make the full disregard of war pensions mandatory as we believe this is properly a responsibility that is devolved to local authorities to use their discretion in this matter.

Social Security Benefits: Fraud

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people called the Benefit Fraud hotline in each of the last 12 months; how many such calls were followed up with an investigation; and how many prosecutions for benefit fraud leading to a conviction there have been in the same period. [302937]

Helen Goodman: Every call to the National Benefit Fraud Hotline is examined by the Department. Where there is enough evidence to indicate potential benefit fraud the case is passed to either the Fraud Investigation Service for further investigation or to our Customer Compliance teams in Jobcentre Plus who will scrutinise the relevant benefit claim and make adjustments to entitlements as necessary.

The number of prosecutions for benefit fraud leading to a conviction from National Benefit Fraud Hotline referrals is not available.

25 Feb 2010 : Column 740W

Available information is set out in the following table:

Number of calls followed up with an investigation
Number
	Calls to National Benefit Fraud Hotline	Referred for further initial inquiries	In depth criminal investigation	Customer compliance interview
2008
November	19,107	6,588	3,444	6,144
December	12,826	7,277	2,499	5,288
2009
January	26,879	10,495	3,245	7,042
February	19,741	8,709	3,113	6,004
March	21,113	9,737	3,510	6,773
April	22,380	8,176	3,252	6,095
May	19,497	8,182	3,616	6,160
June	22,828	9,893	3,443	6,847
July	25,725	9,321	3,594	6,741
August	21,389	7,777	2,834	5,333
September	21,305	12,515	5,438	8,272
October	24,462	9,197	3,462	5,046
Notes: 1. Monthly call data begin on the first Friday after the first Thursday of the month. 2. Number of calls to the National Benefit Fraud Hotline is the number of calls that are presented to the Contact Centre and enter the queue (or are answered immediately) during business hours. Business hours are 7am to 11pm. 3. Number of investigations is generated from the number of referrals/incidents accepted for investigation (i.e. those which result in a case being opened). 4. Figures represent Great Britain only (do not include Northern Ireland). Sources: 1. National Benefit Fraud Hotline data provided by Jobcentre Plus Contact Centre Directorate. 2. Investigation data taken from DWP Fraud Referral and Investigation Management System.

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