§ Mr. ChurchillTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list, in respect of the current and next three financial years, the cost to the Exchequer of redundancy payments in respect of job losses and redundancies(a) in mining and related industries in the event that the proposals of 13 October 1992 are implemented, (b) in the armed forces under "Options for Change" and (c) in other fields; and what is his estimate of the overall cost of unemployment and other social security benefits to which those redundancies will give rise for each year that those made redundant remain unemployed.
§ Mr. PortilloThe amount and timing of grant payments to British Coal in respect of redundancies will depend on the pattern of voluntary redundancies and on the decisions about pit closures taken by the corporation in the light of the coal review, the outcome of which will be announced in a White Paper to be published shortly. The effect on related industries will depend on these decisions.
Payments to the armed forces under "Options for Change" are:
£ million 1992–93 160 1993–94 370 1994–95 350 1995–96 — (Rounded to the nearest £10 million.
These figures are the sum of the special capital compensation payments to armed forces personnel made redundant as part of the transition to new force structures, together with the net present value of the extra costs associated with the early payment of both their pension lump sums and their annual pensions.
It is not possible to estimate the costs of paying benefits for each year those made redundant remain unemployed; it is not known how quickly they will get jobs and the level of social security benefits payable depends on the characteristics of the individuals.