§ Ms. HarmanTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the percentage change of tax and national insurance as a percentage of average gross earnings, including overtime and other payments, of National Health Service nurses between 1980 and the latest year for which figures are available.
§ Mr. Norman Lamont[holding answer 27 January 1988]: Between 1980–81 and 1987–88 the real take-home pay of nurses rose by 22 per cent. In the same period, the proportion of their earnings taken in income tax and NIC is estimated to have increased by 0.7 percentage points from 26.2 per cent. to 26.9 per cent. If the 1978–79 tax regime had been kept in place and simply adjusted for inflation the proportion of earnings taken in tax and NIC in 1987–88 would have been 28.3 per cent.
Earnings figures are derived from the "New Earnings Survey" occupation category, "Registered and enrolled nurses, midwives" and are for those employed full-time on adult rates whose pay was not affected by absence. The nurse is assumed to be contracted out of SERPS.