HC Deb 19 July 1956 vol 556 cc108-9W
81. Mr. McKay

asked the Minister of Education when the present scale regulating the fees to be paid by parents who sent their children to direct grant schools was established; what the income of a one-child family was required to be in 1946 when a fee of £2 per annum had to be paid; how much was this weekly sum above the workers' average industrial earnings of 120s. 9d. per week in 1946; how many parents were paying fees that year; and how many are paying fees now in Northumberland.

Sir D. Eccles

The income scale for the parents of the holders of residuary places in direct grant schools was introduced in 1945. In 1946 a fee of £2 per year was payable in respect of a family with one child whose income was between £7 10s. and £8 a week, or from 29s. 3d.–39s. 3d. above the figure of 120s. 9d. a week. I have no information which would enable me to answer the last part of the Question.

82. Mr. McKay

asked the Minister of Education what the parent of a one-child family has to earn now when sending his child to a direct grant school, if he be charged an annual fee of £2, £6, or £10; and how much in each case the parent's earnings will be below the average earnings of industrial workers of 222s. 11d. per week.

Sir D. Eccles

He would have to earn from £7 10s. a week to pay annual fees of £2, over £9 a week to pay £6 and over £10 a week to pay £10. These figures are respectively 72s. 11d., 42s. 11d. and 22s. 11d. less than 222s. 11d.

83. Mr. McKay

asked the Minister of Education what he estimates to be the increased fee payable today at a direct grant school for a one-child family who paid £2 per annum in 1946, where the father's wages have increased by 60 per cent. to correspond with the increase in the cost of living and on the basis that his only child at home was, and is, in the direct grant school.

Sir D. Eccles

An increase of 60 per cent. on an income in 1946 of £7 10s. to £8 a week (£390–£416 a year), on which a parent would in 1946 have paid an annual fee of £2, would bring the income to, approximately £624–£650 a year, on which he would be liable to pay an annual fee of about £20.