§ Mr. Raisonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will up-date the answer given to the hon. Member for Aylesbury, Official Report, 11th November 1977, column 274.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report 13th November 1978; Vol. 958, c. 91), gave the following information:
The figures are as follows:
ber 1977 and for 1978–79 to September 1978, the latest month for which a figure is available. For the sake of comparability with the figures for 1973–74and 559W previous years given in the previous answer to the hon. Member—and in the answer to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North (Mr. Howell) to which it referred —the tax-free child benefit has been included in both thresholds and average earnings for the married couples with children.
I regret that the 1977–78 figures for married couples with children in the previous answer to the hon. Member were not on the basis then indicated, since the child benefit was added to earnings but not to the thresholds.
The fall in the threshold compared with earnings between the two years for the single person and married couple reflects the increases in personal allowances in October 1977 which anticipated the increases required for indexation in 1978–79. If these increases had taken place in 1978–79 rather than 1977–78 the 1977–78 figures would have been as shown in the table. The remaining fall in thresholds for families with children reflects the continuing transition from child tax allowances to child benefit.