§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the net cost of reducing the tax allowance for a married man to that of a single man and paying direct to every married woman a weekly tax-free payment of (a) £4, (b) £5, (c) £6, (d) £7 and (e) £8, subject to a £1 for £1 earnings rule on earnings above £6, £8, £10, £12 and £14, either if the payment is disregarded for the purposes of supplementary benefit and the overlapping benefit regulations or if it is not so disregarded.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 11th January 1978; Vol. 941, c. 753], gave the following information:
Accurate information to enable answers to be given for each of the 50 costs requested is not available. However, my hon. Friend may find the following points helpful:
(a) Assuming no other changes, the revenue gained by reducing the personal tax allowance of a married man to that of a single man would be £2,200 million in 1977–78.
(b) Because of the lack of information on incomes below the tax threshold it is not possible to gauge, with any accuracy, the cost of a benefit which would depend on low earnings limits. However, estimates based on the limited information available from the General Household Survey suggest that the cost of making a weekly tax-free payment to all married women, subject to a £1 for £1 earnings rule on earnings above certain limits, would be of the following order:
£4 benefit with £6 earnings limit: £1,800 million; £4 benefit with £14 earnings limit: £2,200 million; £8 benefit with £6 earnings 843W limit: £3,700 million; £8 benefit with £14 earnings limit: £4,800 million.(c) If these payments were not disregarded for the purposes of supplementary benefits and the overlapping benefit regulations, the costs in (b) would be reduced. The estimates of these reductions have been based on the assumption that in all cases benefit for married women, either in their own right or as dependants, would be reduced by £4 or £8 per week. On these assumptions the savings would be of the order of £650 million on a £4 payment and £1,300 million on an £8 payment, in 1977–78.