§ Mr. Hordernasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing the number of those who, after receiving allowances, earn insufficient money to be taxable, on the nearest convenient date before the increase in allowances, in each of the last 10 years, and to include the present year.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 17th May 1977], gave the following information:
The numbers of people, counting husband and wife as one, whose total income was insufficient for them to be taxable in the years 1972–73, 1973–74 and 1974–75 are as follows:
millions 1972–73 9.4 1973–74 8.2 1974–75 7.7 These figures are based upon the estimates of the distribution of personal incomes published by the Central Statistical Office in Economic Trends for August 1975, June 1976 and April 1977, together with the Inland Revenue's "Survey of Personal Incomes". Information is not available for earned income alone, nor are comparable figures available for earlier years.