HC Deb 17 June 1892 vol 5 cc1466-7
MR. FRANCIS EVANS (Southampton)

I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer will he explain on what grounds expectant supervisors of Inland Revenue receive only £240 per year salary, while the senior first-class officers supervised by them will this year attain a salary of £250; and whether, in view of the facts that expectant supervisors and expectant inspectors are the only classes not in receipt of annual incre- ments, although some years must be spent in the grades, that, notwithstanding some recent concessions, there are districts wherein expectant supervisors receive only £50 a year for officiating, though having to live away from their homes they cannot maintain themselves properly on so small an allowance; and that expectant supervisors form but a small body (fifty), their case will be included amongst the minor questions affecting Inland Revenue officials now under consideration, with a view to granting an adequate officiating allowance and to the removal of the anomaly of paying a supervising official a lower salary than that received by one he may supervise, as prayed for inter alia in the general Petition presented last year?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. GOSCHEN,) St. George's, Hanover Square

The fact stated in the first paragraph is correct; but expectant supervisors are really officers of the first class acting from time to time as supervisors, and when promoted to be expectant supervisors they receive an immediate increase of about £40 a year more than they were receiving or were entitled to receive according to their standing as first-class officers. Annual increments are not continuous throughout the service in any of the classes. The position of expectant supervisor is a transitional or temporary one, occupied for about three years only. Expectant supervisors receive £50 a year for cost of lodging and extra cost of living away from home. This is considered sufficient when the circumstance is taken into account that they also receive, when officiating, on an average of all districts, more than £20 a year in addition, for cost of living when absent from their lodging during the day. Concessions have recently been made to the expectant supervisors, and notwithstanding the alleged grievances the number of applicants for the position is embarrassingly in excess of the requirements of the Department.