§ Mr. Bensonasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will give the figures of expenditure on public social services in 1943 and 1944.
§ Mr. Glenvil HallYes, Sir. Following is a statement giving the figures for 1943 (or the latest available year) and 1944. These are comparable with the figures published in the Official Report for 14th December, 1944, in respect of 1942 and 1943
773W774W775W
PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES Total Expenditure under Certain Acts of Parliament (other than expenditure out of loans for capital purposes or out of capital receipts). NOTE.—This Statement gives the expenditure on Public Social Services in 1943 and 1944, the latest years for which details are available, which would have been included in Part I of the return to be published in continuation of Command 5906 of November, 1938. Reference should be made to Command 5906 for comparable expenditure in earlier years and for information as to the basis on which the return is compiled, but it should be observed that the explanatory notes given in that return are not now accurate in all respects. Service. England and Wales. Scotland. 1943 (or latest available year) Great Britain. Total number of persons directly benefiting from the expenditure included in Column 5. Financial Year commencing 1st April. Financial Year commencing 1st April. 1943 (or latest available year). 1944 (estimated). 1943 (or latest available year). 1944 (estimated). (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 England and Wales. Scotland. (a) Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Assistance Acts: (i) Unemployment Benefit, etc., General Scheme 4,068 4,939 1,171 1,549 5,239 11,606,000* 1,371,000* (ii) Unemployment Benefit, etc., Agricultural Scheme … … … … … … 218 229 30 33 248 568,000 83,000 (iii) Unemployment Allowances … … … 1,301 1,212 434 448 1,735 Not available Not available (iv) Prevention and Relief of Distress … … 619 594 39 31 658 (b) National Health Insurance Acts … … … 47,388† 48,050† 5,545† 5,601† 52,933 22,006,000* 2,5,12,000* (c) Widow's, Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Acts … … … … … … 55,931‡ 56,285‡ 6,484‡ 6,555‡ 62,415 2,504,000 294,000 (d) Old Age Pensions Acts … … … … … … 49,730 50,509 5,617 5,691 55,347 2,094,000 235,000 (e) Old Age and Widows' Pensions Act, 1940,etc., Supplementary Pensions … … … … 42,776 52,815 4,324 5,281 47,100 Not available Not available (f) War Pensions Acts and the Ministry, of Pensions Act(War of 1914–1918) … … … … … 29,358 29,773 3,241 3,270 32,599 631,050 69,600 (g) Pensions (Navy, Army, Air Force and Mercantile Marine) Act, 1939 Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions)Act, 1939; Military Training Act,X939; Reserve and Auxiliary Forces Act,1939(War of 1939 –1945) … … … … 31,444 38,714 3,791 4,762 35,235 897,580 108,640 776W
Service. England and Wales. Scotland. 1943 (or latest available year) Great Britain. Total number of persons directly benefiting from the expenditure included in Column 5. Financial Year commencing 1st April. Financial Year commencing 1st April. 1943 (or latest available year). 1944 (estimated). 1943 (or latest available vear). 1944(estimated). (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 England and Wales. Scotland. (h) Education Act … … 128,495 138,148 18,004 19,075 146,499 Not available 903,314 (i) Physical Training and Recreation Act … … 2 1 — — 2 Not available — (j) Acts relating to Approved Schools … … 1,538 1,767 258 285 1,846 10,634 3,495 (k) Public Health Acts so far as they relate to: (i) Hospitals and Treatment of Disease … … 18,427 Not available 2,600 Not available 21,027 Not available Not available (ii) Maternity and child Welfare Work … … 4,191 835 6,538 (l) Midwives Acts … … 1,512 (m) Housing Acts … … 46,365 8,970 55,335 — — (n)Acts relating to the Relief of the Poor … … 36,452 4,363 40,815 627,055 96,000 (o) Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts … … 3,320 1,893 9,721 129,597 22,000 (p)Mental Deficiency Acts … … 4,508 Not available Totals … … 507,693 67,599 575,292 NOTES. * Numbers given arc those of insured persons at 5th July, 1943 (Unemployment), and 31st December, 1943 (Health). Sec paragraph 6 on page 5 of Command 5906. † The figures given in columns 1 and 3 and columns 2 and 4 relate to the calendar years 1944 and 1945 respectively. ‡ These figures refer to expenditure from the Pensions Account, the Special Pensions Account, the Pensions (Scotland) Account and the Special Pensions (Scotland) Account. Surpluses and deficits in these Accounts are dealt with by transfers to and from the Treasury Pensions Account and the Treasury Special Pensions Account, which cover both England and Wales and Scotland and into which annual contributions are paid by the Exchequer. For the financial year 1943 the amount of the Exchequer contribution was £22,525,000. §Of this figure £288,000 representing expenditure by local authorities, relates to the financial year 1941, the latest year for which figures are available.