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Proceeding contribution from Lord McKenzie of Luton (Labour) in the House of Lords on Thursday, 21 January 2010. It occurred during Debate on bill and Committee proceeding on Child Poverty Bill.


Child Poverty Bill

I cannot confirm that figure off the top of my head. I can certainly get the latest data that we have, but I know that it is not an insignificant sum over a range of benefits; council tax benefit is one, while pension credit is a smaller issue but still a significant one. Housing benefit is also affected. Sometimes the underclaiming arises because people do not necessarily take the point that some of these are in-work benefits as well as out-of-work benefits—that impacts on housing benefit and council tax benefit in particular—but the drive to have better take-up of those benefits is crucial to tackling poverty and income inequality. That is another feature of this debate: we are talking about poverty and relative incomes, but this touches upon income equality as well.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
716 c195GC 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
Subjects
Disability Children Children in care Accountability Disadvantaged Costs Fraud Employment Families Education Households Low incomes Ministerial responsibility Public appointments Poverty Public bodies Public consultation Lone parents Statistics Social security benefits Welfare tax credits Training Travellers Tax evasion Self-employed Child Poverty Commission
Legislation
Child Poverty Bill 2008-09 to 2009-10
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk