Public Social Services (Expenditure) (Hansard, 17 December 1948)

§ Mr. Glenvil Hall

Following is a Statement giving the figures for 1946–47 (actual) and 1947–48 (estimated). These are comparable with the figures published in the OFFICIAL REPORT for 19th December, 1947, in respect of 1945–46 and 1946–47.

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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 1946–47 and 1947–48, 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, 1938) 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	Total number of persons directly benefiting from the expenditure included in Column 5 (6)
Financial Year	Financial Year	Financial Year 1946–47 (or latest available year) (5)
1946–47 (or latest available year)(1)	1947–48 (estimated) (2)	1946–47 (or latest available year) (3)	1947–48(estimated) (4)
	£000.	£000.	£000.	£000.	£000.	England and wales	Scotland
(a) Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Assistance Acts:—
(i) Unemployment Benefit, etc., General Scheme	28,023	21,005	6,351	4,827	34,374	12,176,000^*	1,445,000^*
(ii) Unemployment Benefit, etc., Agricultural Scheme	412	471	65	69	477	588,000^*	82,000^*
(iii) Unemployment Allowances	3,382	2,235	921	645	4,303	Not available.	Not available.
(iv) Prevention and Relief of Distress	175	78	21	8	196
(b)National Health Insurance Acts	52,609†	27,200†	6,356†	2,977†	58,965	22,608,000^*	2,530,000^*
(c) Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Acts	79,632‡	222,675‡	9,036‡	23,890‡	88,668	2,624,271	306,000
(d)Family Allowances Act	29,199§	51,018	4,381§	7,594	33,580	3,569,000§	535,000§
(e) Old Age Pensions Acts	93,224	25,282\|	10,328	2,982\|	103,552	2,342,000	257,000
(f) Old Age and Widows' Pensions Act, 1940, etc.: Supplementary Pensions	35,727	11,070	3,434	1,002	39,161	Not available.	Not available.
(g) War Pensions Acts and the Ministry of Pensions Act (War of 1914–18)	32,000	32,338	3,477	3,504	35,477	756,530	82,010
(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)	45,431	45,380	5,847	5,901	51,278	1,232,340	159,330
(i) Education Acts	194,522	222,165	27,676	32,122	222,198	Not available.	963,000
(j) Physical Training and Recreation Act	33	112	3	17	36	Not available.	Not available.
(k)Acts relating to Approved Schools	2,184	2,565	357	444	2,541	10,544	3,621
(l)Public Health Acts so far as they relate to:—
(i)Hospitals and Treatment of Disease	27,993	Not available.	3,823	Not available.	31,816	Not available
(ii) Maternity and Child Welfare Work	6,581	1,270		Not available.
(m)Midwives Acts	2,355		10,206
(n)Housing Acts	47,473	10,137
(o)Acts relating to the Relief of the Poor	41,931	4911	57,610	—	—
(p)Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts	4,233	2400	46,842	552,503	102,036
(q) Mental Deficiency Acts	5,562	12,195	127,470 Not available	23,645
TOTALS	732,681		100,794		833,475
NOTES:—
^*The numbers given are those of insured persons at 8th July, 1946 (Unemployment) and 31st December, 1947 (Health).
†The figures given in columns 1 and 3 relate to the calendar year 1947 and those in columns 2 and 4 to the period 1st January to 4th July, 1948, i.e., the date on which the National Health Insurance Acts ceased to operate.
‡ 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 were dealt with by transfers to and from the Treasury Pensions Account and the Treasury Special Pensions Account, which covered both England and Wales and Scotland and in to which annual contributions were paid by the Exchequer. For the financial year 1946–47 the amount of the Exchequer contribution was £12,025,000. In columns 2 and 4 the figures also include expenditure on pensions payable by virtue of the Contributory Pensions Acts to persons over age 70. From 1st April, 1947, these payments, which previously were included under (e) "Old Age Pensions Acts" were made from the Pensions Account and the Pensions (Scotland) Account.
§Family allowances commenced in August, 1946. The figures in column 6 are the numbers of children in respect of whom allowances were in payment at 31st March, 1947, the numbers of families concerned being: England and Wales, 2,288,000:Scotland, 306,000.
\|Non-contributory pensions only see Note ‡ above.

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