To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many households with dependent children, where those children were classified as being in poverty, were eligible for tax credits in the latest period for which figures are available. (192158)

Latest available data, consistent with DWP's “Households Below Average Income” publication, shows that there were 1.5 million households with children in relative low income poverty in 2005-06 (household income less than 60 per cent. of median on a before housing costs basis). Nearly all these 1.5 million households have positive entitlements to tax credits.