§ 16. Viscount CURZONasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he will state the estimated total amount of saving to the Crown based on the present cost, or the cost as known over some period of this year or last year, in respect of allowances for dependants other than wives and children, including special parents' allowance; allotment concession and family concession; Navy supplementary separation allowance; the London allowance of 3s. 6d. a week hitherto paid in the case of wives resident in London; allowances for unmarried wives and illegitimate children; allowances for adopted children; allowances for children above the elementary school age, at present 14 years; allowances for apprentices and children above the normal elementary school age who are mentally or physically incapable of earning a living; free railway warrants to men for annual leave; wives and children's half-fare passes; and childless wives' allowance, paid by the Ministry of Pension; what is the estimated additional gain to the Treasury from the imposition on officers and men of the Royal Navy of the full scale of Income Tax instead of the special scale which has hitherto applied; and how much has the cost of living increased since the pay of the Navy was last revised?
§ Sir J. CRAIGNo statistical record of these particulars has been kept in the Admiralty, but an estimate of the saving has been prepared as follows:—
Separation allowance and kindred allowances, £900,000 a year.
363 Free railway warrants and half-fare passes, £350,000 a year.
As regards childless wives' allowance, inquiry has been made of the Ministry of Pensions, but I am informed that no statistics exist in that Department on which an estimate of the saving to the Crown in respect of the naval service can be based. As regards Income Tax, so many factors have to be taken into account in the assessment of income for Income Tax purposes that only a rough approximation is possible. The total estimated gain to the Crown, taking into account all factors, is £200,000 a year. As regards the last part of the question, the index figure for the cost of living when the pay of the Navy was last revised was 120 per cent. It is now 164 per cent.