20. Mr. Edward M. Taylorasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress 222 has been made in preparing the new savings schemes outlined in the Budget.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsThe Department for National Savings is continuing its administrative planning for S.A.Y.E. The Trustee Savings Banks have announced their intention to set up a parallel scheme. The target date for both these schemes is October next.
Mr. TaylorAs, since the Budget, savings have been disappointing, and in view of the deteriorating economic position, is there any likelihood of advancing the date from October to perhaps a month earlier?
§ Mr. JenkinsI do not think so. I should very much like to have these schemes in operation at the earliest possible date, but I must have regard to practical administrative considerations. The Premium Bonds Scheme when it was announced in 1956 took 14 months to bring into operation. We are improving on that. If I can further improve on it I should like to do so, but I hold out no hope of being able to do it.
§ Mr. MaxwellWill my right hon. Friend consider inviting the National Savings Committee to encourage people on P.A.Y.E. to put part of their overtime earnings into a savings scheme, and will he consider exempting those savings from tax? This would be an incentive to work harder and encourage savings.
§ Mr. JenkinsI went to considerable lengths in my Budget speech, for precisely the reason that I was at first attracted by this proposal, to explain why the scheme could not be directly related to overtime, and why it was best to give the reward in the form of a tax-free bonus at the end of the period rather than give tax exemption at the beginning of the period, and this view was shared by those most concerned with the savings scheme.