§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will seek 43W powers to end the situation whereby a man with a wife and three children under 11 years, with a wage of £35 a week, has a net weekly income of £30.84 when at work and £33.18 for 16 weeks when not at work;
(2) if he will seek powers to end the situation whereby a man with a wife and three children under 11 years of age, with a wage of £30 a week, has a net weekly income of £27.59 when at work and £32.40 for 11 weeks when not at work;
(3) if he will seek powers to end the situation whereby a man with a wife and no children, with a wage of £25 a week, has a net weekly income of £20.34 when at work and £21.73 for 18 weeks when not at work;
(4) if he will seek powers to end the situation whereby a man with a wife and three children under 11 years of age, with a wage of £25 a week, has a net weekly income of £24.34 when at work and £30.70 for four weeks when not at work;
(5) if he will seek powers to end the situation whereby a man with a wife and no children, with a wage of £20 a week, has a net weekly income of £17.09 when at work and £20.00 for 11 weeks when not at work.
§ Mr. NottThis sort of situation can arise only at certain periods in the tax year and then only where the man has been in continuous employment at the stated level since the preceding 5th April. We recognise that this anomaly may arise at the present level of benefits and tax in a limited number of cases. It will be removed by the tax credit scheme, if this is introduced.
§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will tabulate the total net weekly income of a man with a wife and two children under 11 years of age, assuming a weekly wage of £15, £20, £25, £30 and £35, respectively, and assuming that the previous year's pay was at the same rates and allowing for relevant tax repayments and any welfare benefits in the following circumstances: for a week's work after 39 weeks at the appropriate rate and when unemployed after 39 weeks' employment and 44W when qualifying for earnings-related supplement; and how many weeks of the year the take-home pay when out of work could exceed the take-home pay when at work.
§ Mr. NottThe figures are:
Weekly Wage A B C £ £ p £ p 15 14.75 16.50 FIS 4.10 4.10 18.85 20.60 Up to 52 20 19.49 18.58 FIS 1.60 1.60 21.09 20.18 — 25 22.89 28.03 Up to 7 30 26.14 29.55 Up to 14 35 29.39 30.33 Up to 19 Column A shows the man's net weekly income when at work for week 40 in the tax year.
Column B shows the income from unemployment benefit including earnings-related supplement for week 42 on the assumption that that is the third consecutive week of unemployment and where appropriate tax refunds.
Column C shows the number of weeks when take-home pay when out of work could exceed take-home pay when at work.
The figures take account of family allowances and national insurance contributions but they do not include any supplementary benefit that might be receivable during unemployment.
The rates of unemployment benefit and national insurance contributions are as proposed in the National Insurance and Supplementary Benefit Bill.
Family income supplement payments are shown separately. They appear under column B as well as column A because a man who becomes entitled to FIS will receive it for the period of the award regardless of whether he becomes unemployed during that period.
The rates of family income supplement are as proposed in the FIS (Computation) (No. 2) Regulations 1973.