HC Deb 25 October 1976 vol 918 c63W
Mr. Ralph Howell

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services further to the reply to the hon. Member for Norfolk North on 30th June 1976, Official Report, column 209, if he will give the number of unemployed upon which his estimates of £240 million and £470 million were based.

Mr. Orme

The number of unemployed assumed on arriving at the total net cost of abolishing all earnings-related supplements and introducing flat-rate short-term national insurance benefits was that used for illustrative purposes in the Government Actuary's report on the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 1976. (Cmnd. 6478), namely, 1.3 million plus 150,000 unemployed school leavers, adult students and temporarily stopped.