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Treasury

Answer

Jean Corston: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) following Chart 3.3 in his Department's Child Poverty Review for July 2004, what the total expenditure was in real terms and total expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product on (a) child benefit, (b) tax credits and (c) other income-related benefits for children in (i) 1997, (ii) 2000 and (iii) 2004 (estimated); and what the respective amounts were for each for the first, sixth and tenth decile groups; [187123] (2) for (a) economically active and (b) non- economically active households with children what the total expenditure was on children for (i) child benefit, (ii) tax credits and (c) other income related benefits for children in (A) 1997, (B) 2000; and what the estimated figures are for 2004. [187124] Dawn Primarolo: The figures requested are in the following tables. The figures for child benefit, child allowances in Income Related Benefits (IRBs--income support, jobseeker's allowance and minimum income guarantee/pension credit) and family credit are for Great Britain; those for working families' tax credit (WFTC) and child tax credit are UK wide. We do not have analysis by decile for 2000-01 and to produce it would incur disproportionate cost. We classify individuals, rather than households, as economically active or non-economically active, so cannot provide the additional analysis requested. Table A: Total Expenditure in real terms (2004-05 prices) £ billion _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Child benefit Family credit/ Other income- related benefits tax credits for children 1997-98 8,415 1,328 2,944 2000-01 9,512 2,749 3,432 2003-041 9,663, 9,138 3,955 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Table B: Total expenditure as a percentage of GDP _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Child benefit Family credit/ Other income- related benefits tax credits for children 1997-98 0.9 0.1 0.3 2000-01 1.0 0.3 0.4 2003-041 0.9 0.9 0.4 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Table C: Breakdown of expenditure by decile £ billion _________________________________________________________________________________________________. (i) 1997-98 Net equivalised household income Child benefit Family credit Other income- related benefits for children Bottom decile 1,200 510 1,300 Sixth decile 850 13 20 Top decile 530 11 0 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. (ii) 2003-04 1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Net equivalised household income Child benefit Tax credits and other income-related benefits for children2 Bottom decile 1,300 3,700 Sixth decile 980 600 Top decile 600 25 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Table D: Breakdown of expenditure by decile (as a percentage of GDP) _________________________________________________________________________________________________. (i) 1997-98 Net equivalised household income Child benefit Child elements of family credit Other income- related benefits for children Bottom decile 0.13 0.06 0.15 Sixth decile 0.10 0.00 0.00 Top decile 0.06 0.00 0.00 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. (ii) 2003-04 1 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________. Net equivalised household income Child benefit Child elements of tax credits and other income-related benefits for children2 Bottom decile 0.13 0.36 Sixth decile 0.09 0.06 Top decile 0.06 0.00 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 The figures for 2003-04 are estimates. 2 The model we use to produce estimates by decile is not able to distinguish between child elements in tax credits and other incomer-related benefits for 2003-04.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

425 c75-7W; 187123;187124

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Children Child benefit Families Expenditure Income Family credit Social security benefits Working families tax credit

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk