§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list in the Official Report his estimate for 1976 and 1977 of the number of wage earners with marginal tax rates, taking into account increased national insurance and loss of means-tested benefits, as well as income tax, in excess of (a) 50 per cent.; (b) 75 per cent.; and (c) 100 per cent. and what percentage of all wage earners these figures represent;
(2) if he will list the number of poor families who have a marginal tax rate, combining tax and loss of social benefits, in excess of 50 per cent.; and if he will break down this number according to those earning less than (a) £20 a week, (b) £20 to £29.99 a week, (c) £30 to £30.99 a week, (d) £40 to £49.99 a week, (e) £50 to £59.99 a week, (f) £60 to £69.99 a week, and (g) above £70;
(3) if he will update the information given to the hon. Member for Sowerby (Mr. Madden), Official Report, 17th February 1977, c. 403–4.
§ Mr. Orme, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 7th February 1978; Vol. 943, c. 541–2], gave the following information:
I regret that, for reasons which I am explaining in a letter to the hon. Member, some of the information requested is still not available. However, the following tables provide estimates as at December 1976 of the numbers of families with children and with the head of the family in full-time work or self-employed, who are theoretically subject to the marginal tax rates stipulated. These estimates are based on a Department of Health and Social Security analysis of incomes and other information recorded by respondents to the family expenditure survey and are subject to sampling error. They are theoretical since they assume that all means-tested benefits are reassessed immediately on receipt of 282W a £1 pay rise; this would not happen in practice, since benefits such as family income supplement are awarded for 52 weeks irrespective of subsequent changes of circumstances. The figures are therefore liable to mislead.
Corresponding estimates for 1977 will not be available until 1979. In any event, I would remind the hon. Member that those one-child and two-child families who were theoretically subject to over 100 per cent. marginal tax rates were removed from this situation by the recent Budget and that, as explained in my reply of 19th April, the number of families with three or more children who may still be theoretically in this situation is considerably fewer than 5,000.
FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN THEORETICALLY SUBJECT TO MARGINAL TAX RATES OVER 50 PER CENT., GREAT BRITAIN, DECEMBER 1976 Range of marginal tax rates(per cent.) Number of families theoretically affected Column 2 as a percentage of all working families with children 1 2 3 51 to 75 170,000 3.4 76 to 100 [20,000] 0.3 Over 100 50,000 1.1
Range of gross earnings Number of families theoretically subject to marginal tax rate over 50 per cent. Less than £20 [10,000] £20–£29.99 [20,000] £30–£39.99 50,000 £40–£49.99 80,000 £50–£59.99 60,000 £60–£69.99 [20,000] £70 and over — All 240,000 Notes on the tables:
1. Estimates are rounded to the nearest 10,000.
2. All the estimates are subject to sampling error; the figures in square brackets in particular are subject to considerable sampling error.
3. Only the population living in private households is covered; institutions etc. are not included in the samples for the family expenditure survey.
4. Higher rate tax payers have been excluded from the tables