Social Security Benefits
Work and Pensions
Written answers and statements, 2 November 2009
Karen Buck (Regent's Park & Kensington North, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the number of people affected by a marginal withdrawal of benefit rate of more than (a) 90 per cent., (b) 70 per cent. and (c) 50 per cent. in each of the last 10 years.
Stephen Timms (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; East Ham, Labour)
I have been asked to reply.
The Government publish estimates for the numbers of people facing high marginal deduction rates (MDRs), which include tax payments as well as benefit withdrawal. These figures are published in Budget and Pre-Budget Report documents.
Figures provided in Budget 2009 showed that the estimated number of people affected by an MDR of greater than:
90 per cent. was 60,000 (down from 130,000 before Budget 1998),
70 per cent. was estimated at 305,000 (down from 740,000 before Budget 1998).
No estimate has been made for those affected by an MDR of greater than 50 per cent.