§ Mr. Needhamasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his latest estimate of the amount of revenue that will be raised in the 1983–84 financial year from the taxation of benefits paid to the unemployed.
§ Mr. RidleyAbout £700 million in a full year. This estimate is based on current—November 1982—levels of benefit. Income tax allowances and thresholds in 1983–84 are assumed to have been indexed by 6 per cent. from their levels in 1982–83 as in the autumn statement; and prices and earnings and the numbers of unemployed to have changed as in paragraph 10 of the Government Actuary's report on the draft of the Social Security (Contributions, Re-rating) Order 1982 (Cmnd. 8742).