HC Deb 23 July 1908 vol 193 cc335-6
MR. CLOUGH (Yorkshire, W.R., Skipton)

I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer what he estimates will be the full total of the moneys that will have to be provided by Parliament during the whole of 1909 to meet the payment of all the old-age pensions contained in the Old-age Pensions Bill after it had been read a third time in this House.

MR. LLOYD GEORGE

The concessions made in Committee are estimated to increase the cost of the scheme in 1909 by approximately £500,000. This was originally estimated at about £6,000,000. So the total cost of the scheme as amended, for the first complete year of its operation, may be expected to amount to about £6,500,000. Any estimate must, however, at the present stage and until practical experience of its working has been obtained, be highly conjectural.

MR. JAMES HOPE (Sheffield, Central)

What will the expenditure for 1910 be approximately?

MR. CLOUGH

Are we to understand, then, that Lord Rosebery's forecast of ten millions was altogether overdrawn?

*MR. SPEAKER

It is very undesirable to refer to debates in another place

contributed by Scotland, bears to that of England, or of England and Wales-combined, for the years 1906–7 and 1907–8.

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE

The respective amounts of income-tax contributed by England and Wales and by Scotland must necessarily be a matter of speculation; but, calculated on the basis of the estimate shown in Return No. 245 [Revenue and Expenditure (England, Scotland and Ireland) 1906–7], they would be as follows:—

in connection with a Question in this House.