Public Social Services (Cost) (Hansard, 13 December 1945)

§ Mr. Glenvil Hall

Yes, 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

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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

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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.

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