Incomes

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will publish a table showing the equivalised income after income tax and national insurance payments of (a) a single person without dependants,(b) a lone parent with one child aged four years, (c) a lone parent with two children aged four and six years, (d) a single earner married couple with one child aged four years and (e) a single earner married couple with two children aged four and six years, assuming there are no child care costs, housing costs are £75 per week and all available benefits are claimed where the gross income is (i) £150, (ii) £200, (iii) £250, (iv) £300 and (v) £400 per week and is wholly from employment; and if she will state in which decile of the distribution of equivalised incomes before housing costs the individual would fall. [32409]

The information is set out in the table.

1995–96 data	Gross earnings (£/week)	Net income before housing costs (£/week)	Equivalisation (Divide by)	Equivalised net income (£/week)	Decile
Married couple, children aged 4 and 6	150	217.94	1.39	156.79	3
	200	221.36	1.39	159.25	3
	250	220.19	1.39	158.41	3
	300	243.48	1.39	175.17	4
	400	308.48	1.39	221.93	5

Notes:

1. Net incomes before housing costs have been derived using the 1995–96 version of the Tax Benefit Model (TBM). The TBM is designed to illustrate the weekly financial circumstances of a selection of hypothetical local authority and private tenants.

2. The net income before housing costs (NIBHC) figures reflect each family's net weekly income after income tax, National Insurance Contributions and all income from benefits (including Child Benefit) have been taken into account; but before housing costs (rent and Council Tax).

3. It has been assumed that the £75 per week housing costs specified in the question are comprised of £65 per week rent and £10 per week Council Tax.

4. The table reflects the situation for both local authority and private tenants; at any given level of rent and Council Tax, net incomes are the same for both local authority and private tenants. Owner occupiers are not covered by the table.

5. It has been assumed that the gross earnings levels specified in the question are the result of full-time employment of more than 30 hours per week. Therefore, the 30-hour Family Credit premium of £10 per week is in payment.

6. The net income deciles have been calculated from the Households Below Avenge Income (HBA) dataset, based on the 1995–96 Family Resources Survey, and are the latest available. The decile breaks (at January 1996 prices) are: £118, £144, £169, £195, £227, £262, £303, £363 and £463. The NIBHC figures have been equivalised using the McClement's scale, as used in Department's publication 'Households Below Average Income' (HBA).

7. Apart from the assumptions made specific to the question, the TBM also rests on a number of more general assumptions:

(a) No tax allowances apart from personal allowances are in operation;

(b) There is no reduced tax liability for spells of unemployment or sickness earlier in the tax year;

(c) National Insurance Contributions are paid at the not contracted out rate;

(d) The family type actually takes up all of the benefits they are entitled to;

(e) The family receives no income from earnings, benefits or capital other than that shown in the table.

Volume 308: debated on Friday 13 March 1998