§ Mr. Hannamasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the number of people receiving the additional blind person's tax allowance in the current tax year; what was the cost to the Exchequer of this allowance; and what would have been the cost if the allowance had retained its value in real terms since its introduction.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 17th March 1977; Vol. 928, c. 269]. gave the following information:
About 30,000 people are estimated to be receiving the blind person's allowance, at a cost of £1 ½ million in 1976–77. If the allowance were increased to maintain its real value between 1962–63 when it was introduced and January 1977, the
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Average weekly earnings (excluding Family Allowance)* Weekly tax and National Insurance Contributions† Weekly net income (after tax and National Insurance Contributions) including Family Allowance‡ £ £ £ 1946–47 … … 6.04 0.20 6.01 1951–52 … … 8.30 0.31 8.25 1956–57 … … 11.90 0.44 11.86 1961–62 … … 15.34 1.37 14.38 1966–67 … … 20.30 2.47 18.24 1971–72 … … 30.93 5.98 25.84 1975–76 … … 59.58 15.35 45.73 1976–77 … … 66.97 16.82 51.64 * Average earnings have been taken as the average weekly earnings of full-time manual adult male workers aged 21 and over in manufacturing and certain other industries at October of each year. † It has been assumed that the taxpayer was "not contracted out" of the graduated pension scheme. ‡ Amounts included for family allowance are 25p per week for 1946–47 (from 6th August 1946) and 1951–52; 40p per week for 1956–57,1961–62 and 1966–67: 90p per week for 1971–72; £1.50 per week for 1975–76 and 1976–77. additional cost for 1976–77 would be about £1 million.