PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
CONDUCT OF THE PRIME MINISTER (13 December 1994)

That this House notes that on 1st December, the Prime Minister told the House that 'net disposable income has risen at all levels of society'; notes that this contradicts figures given by the Department of Social Security in the Official Report on 26th October 1994, which confirmed that in 1991-92 more than seven million people in the poorest 20 per cent. of families with children were worse off, at April 1994 prices, than similar families in 1979; notes that they were 12 per cent. or ú520 per year worse off when income is measured after housing costs and two per cent. or ú156 per year, worse off before housing costs; notes that the disposable income after housing costs of a couple with children aged three and eight in the poorest tenth of families had slumped between 1979 and 1991 by ú996 per year whilst a similar couple in the richest tenth were ú14,300 per year better off and that a lone pensioner was ú676 per year worse off and a pensioner couple ú52 a year worse off; notes that in seven out of eight employment categories specified in the DSS analysis of Households Below Average Income the numbers in the population with smaller real income than the median income of the poorest 10 per cent. in 1979 had grown and that there were now 4.1 million in poverty by this standard compared with 2.8 million in 1979; and calls on the Prime Minister to confirm the accuracy of departmental statistics.

Sponsored by:
Baroness Corston (Labour)