§ Mr. Paul Deanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will set out the net weekly spending power of a married man with two children aged 4 and 6 years who is out of work for the first six months of the current financial year on the assumption that previous earnings were £35, £45, £55, £65, £75, and £85, that rent amounted to £5 .60 per week and rates £2 .20 and that unemployment
808WFigures for regional health authorities and for Wales are available only for the years 1975 and 1976 and are as follows:
Down's syndrome Spina bifida 1975 1976 1975 1976 Northern 25 21 54 53 Yorkshire 32 28 74 52 Trent 52 49 92 71 East Anglia 12 8 26 17 N.W. Thames 30 23 45 37 N.E. Thames 39 32 63 41 S.E. Thames 31 25 46 50 S.W. Thames 25 20 33 30 Wessex 15 18 54 29 Oxford 17 32 40 34 South-Western 26 18 55 39 West Midlands 63 48 84 73 Mersey 12 13 43 38 North-Western 31 26 79 69 Wales 23 23 49 45 The numbers for Down's syndrome are likely to be a substantial understatement as they are obtained from a voluntary system of reporting congenital abnormalities shortly after birth and exclude those detected later.
The numbers for spina bifida are likely to be much closer to the true numbers.
I regret that the other information requested is not available centrally for England and Wales.
Figures provided by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland are as follows:
benefit was treated as taxable in come.
§ Mr. Orme, Pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 15th December 1977; Vol. 941, c. 408], gave the following information:
As I have said in reply to earlier Questions of this kind, the general validity of the figures sought is very dubious. The answers given have to depend on broad assumptions, and it is not possible to know how far they are representative or characteristic of the real situation of 809W wage earners or unemployed people, whose individual circumstances can vary very widely. For that reason, where the preparation of answers entails considerable work and expense I am not, in general, prepared to authorise it. In the present Question, moreover, the postulated assumption that unemployment benefit is to be treated as taxable income is not a realistic one at present, and this in itself makes the figures of questionable value.
Subject to these general qualifications, the information requested is set out in the table below. It illustrates the position of someone out of work for the first six months of the current tax year-that is, between April and October 1977. The
Former Earnings Unemployment Benefit Child Benefit Tax Payable Family Income Supplement Rent Rebate Rate Rebate Free School Meals Free Welfare Milk Net Weekly Spending Power £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ 35 26.50 2.50 — 3.80 5.60 2.17 0.75 0.75 34.27 45 32.62 2.50 — — 5.44 1.99 — — 34.75 55 35.37 2.50 0.12 — 4.76 1.77 — — 36.48 65 36.64 2.50 0.55 — 4.44 1.66 — — 36.89 75 37.92 2.50 0.99 — 4.12 1.56 — — 37.31 85 38.68 2.50 1.24 — 3.93 1.50 — — 37.57