HC Deb 15 November 1977 vol 939 cc193-5W
Mr. Tebbit

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) pursuant to his reply of 10th November to the hon. Member for Braintree (Mr. Newton), stating that the value of that part of the social wage represented by social security benefits is equal to a sum of £441 per annum, how much of that benefit of £441 would be received by a married man with two young children earning the average industrial wage;

(2) to what extent the benefits of the social wage are directed to persons on less than average incomes; and if he will publish a table showing how the benefits of the social wage are received within each decile of the working population arranged by income grouping;

(3) pursuant to his Written Answer to the hon. Member for Braintree (Mr. Newton), Official Report, 10th November, c. 185–6, stating, that the value of that part of the social wage represented by health and personal social service benefits equal to a sum of £281 per annum, how much of that benefit of £281 would be received by a married man with two young children earning the average industrial wage;

(4) to what extent purchasing power has been redirected from persons having incomes above the national average to- wards those on average or less than average income since March 1974 and October 1974, respectively;

(5) what is the weekly value of social wage benefits actually received by a married man with two young children earning the average industrial wage, namely, disallowing the value of benefit such as unemployment benefit and retirement pensions not paid to such a person, in March 1974, October 1974 and August 1977 in then current terms and updated to August 1977 terms.

Mr. Joel Barnett

The conventional arithmetic of the social wage is of a quite different character from statements about the benefits received by individuals or households of particular types, or about the redistributive effects of social policies generally. I regret, therefore, that I cannot answer these Questions in the terms in which they have been put. Most analysis of the kind sought is carried out in terms of taxes paid and benefits received by households of selected types, with various levels of household income, and I would refer the hon. Member to the annual series of articles prepared by the Central Statistical Office and published inEconomic Trends, which contain a great deal of information on the distributive effects of taxation, social security and the education and health services. The last annual article appeared in the December 1976 issue, and in the January 1977 issue there was a review covering the years 1961 to 1975. Estimates for 1976 will be available in January.

Mr. Tebbit

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his Written Answer to the hon. Member for Braintree (Mr. Newton) Official Report, 10th November, c. 185–6, stating that the value of that part of the social wage represented by social security benefit is equal to a sum of £441 per annum, how much of that is represented by (a) retirement and other pensions, (b) supplementary benefit and (c) unemployment benefit.

Mr. Joel Barnett

Following is the information requested: (a) £301; (b) £43; (c) £23. The remaining £74 includes sickness, family and other benefits and the cost of administration.

Mr. Tebbit

asked the Chancellor of Exchequer, pursuant to his Written Answer to the hon. Member for Braintree (Mr. Newton), Official Report, 10th November, columns 185–6, concerning the social wage, whether unemployed persons are included in the terms the United Kingdom working population; and what was the gross amount of benefit and the number of persons used in his calculation of the per capita benefit.

Mr. Joel Barnett

Yes. The total amount of the social wage was £38,132 million, and the number in the working population was 26.11 million.