Public Social Services (Expenditure) (Hansard, 19 December 1947)

§ Mr. Glenvil Hall

Yes. Following is a statement giving the figures for 1945–46 (actual) and 1946–47 (estimated). These are comparable with the figures published in the OFFICIAL REPORT for 20th December, 1946, in respect of 1944–45 and 1945–46.

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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 1945–46 and 1946–47, the latest years for which details are available, and the information it provides is similar to that furnished by Part I of the annual "Public Social Services" return before the war. Reference should be made to the last of those returns (Cmd. 5906 of November, 1935) 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 in that return are not now accurate in all respects and that certain new items have been added to the list of services included in the Statement.
SERVICE.	ENGLAND AND WALES	SCOTLAND.	GREAT BRITAIN.
Financial Year	Financial Year.	Financial Year 1945–46 (or latest available year.)	Total number of persons directly benefiting from the expenditure included in Column 5.
1945–46 (or latest available year).	1946–47 (estimated).	1945–46 (or latest available year).	1946–47 (estimated).
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
(a) Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Assistance Acts:—	£000.	£000.	£000.	£000.	£000.	England and Wales.	Scotland.
(i) Unemployment Benefit, etc., General Scheme	13,441	28,023	3,317	6,351	16,758	10,790,000^*	1,291,000^*
(ii) Unemployment Benefit, etc., Agricultural Scheme	299	412	41	65	340	562,000^*	81,000^*
(iii) Unemployment Allowances	1,956	3,382	614	921	2,570	Not available.	Not available.
(iv) Prevention and Relief of Distress	322	175	30	21	352
(b) National Health Insurance Acts	50,933†	53,447†	6,138†	6,223†	57,071	22,131,000^*	2,546,000^*
(c) Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Acts	57,386†	79,763‡	6,634‡	9,036‡	64,020	2,574,387	304,000
(d) Family Allowances Act	—	29,199§	—	4,381§	—	—	—
(e) Old Age Pensions Acts	52,405	93,224	5,824	10,328	58,229	2,232,000	247,000
(f) Old Age and Widows' Pensions Act, 1940, etc.: Supplementary Pensions	56,896	35,727	5,565	3,434	62,461	Not available.	Not available.
(g) War Pensions Acts and the Ministry of Pensions Act (War of 1914–18)	30,599	32,125	3,350	3,490	33,949	593,310	64,890
(h) Pensions (Navy, Army, Air Force and Mercantile Marine) Act, 1939; Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1939; Military Training Act, 1939; Reserve and Auxiliary Forces Act, 1939 (War of 1939–45)	43,294	45,566	5,449	5,863	48,743	1,178,540	149,300
(i) Education Acts	166,501	193,423	24,635	27,079	191,136	Not available.	936,101
(j) Physical Training and Recreation Act	3	33	—	—	3	Not available.	—
(k) Acts relating to Approved Schools	2,310	2,595	327	361	2,637	11,052	3,752
(l) Public Health Acts so far as they relate to:—
(i) Hospitals and Treatment of Disease	22,334	Not available.	3,227	Not available.	25,561	Not available.	Not available
(ii) Maternity and Child Welfare Work	5,105	1,154	8,175
(m) Midwives Acts	1,916
(n) Housing Acts	45,847	9,351	55,198	—	—
(o) Acts relating to the Relief of the Poor	36,976	4,682	41,658	540,699	108,417
(p) Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts	3,563	2,186	10,789	127,614	23,599
(q) Mental Deficiency Acts	5,040	Not available.
TOTALS	597,126		82,524		679,650
NOTES:
^* The numbers given are those of insured persons at 7th July, 1945 (Unemployment) and 31st December, 1946 (Health). See 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 1946 and 1947 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 1945–46 the amount of the Exchequer contribution was £22,525,000.
§ Family allowances commenced in August, 1946. The numbers of children in respect of whom allowances were in payment at 31st March, 1947 were: England and Wales, 3,569,000. Scotland, 535,000, the numbers of families concerned being: England and Wales, 2,288,000; Scotland, 306,000.
Of this figure £328,000, representing expenditure by local authorities, relates to the financial year 1943–44, the latest year for which figures are available.

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