§ Mr. Bakerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will estimate the total number of staff in the Inland Revenue that would be saved by the abolition of children's allowances, tax relief on mortgage interest payments and life assurance payments, dependent relative allowance, blind person's allowance, housekeeper's allowance, daughter's services allowance and the tool allowances, respectively.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 18th January 1978; Vol. 924, c. 109–10], gave the following information:
The staff that would be saved by the abolition of each of these allowances would be as follows:
Children's allowance 1,400 Tax relief on mortgage interest payments 1,350 Tax relief on life assurance payments 1,200 Dependent relative allowance 550 Blind person's allowance 15 Housekeeper's allowance 80 Daughter's services allowance 5 Flat rate Schedule E expenses allowances (including tool allowances) 50 I would take this opportunity to apologise for an error in my answer of 13th December to a similar Question from the hon. Member [Vol. 922, c. 545]. In that answer the staff saving for the 592W Schedule E expenses allowance was inadvertently shown as 15.
These individual savings total some 4,650 staff. If all the allowances were abolished the resulting simplification of the personal tax system would be likely to lead to further savings but it is not possible to quantify the amount.