To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what measures his Department has taken to reduce poverty in Wirral West since 1997. (78381)

The Treasury has, in partnership with other Government Departments, tackled poverty and promoted economic opportunity through:

promoting macroeconomic stability;

supporting work for those who can and ensuring that work pays, through the New Deals, a national minimum wage and the working tax credit;

providing financial support for groups at particular risk of poverty, such as child benefit and the child tax for families, and the pension credit for pensioners.

Across the UK, these measures have helped lift more than a million people out of poverty since 1997. Tax credits are benefiting more than half a million families in the North West region, and in Wirral South claimant unemployment has fallen by half, youth unemployment has fallen by 75 per cent. and long-term unemployment has fallen by 89 per cent.