§ 61. Mr. Prescottasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total sum outstanding of unpaid post-war credits; what is the total sum paid, to date; and what are the estimated payments for 1950 and 1951.
§ Sir S. CrippsThe amount of post-war credit originally created was £800 million, of which about £155 million has been repaid to date and a further sum of about £20 million set off against arrears of tax for 1945–46 and earlier years under the arrangement announced by my predecessor on 29th October, 1946. This leaves about £625 million still outstanding. Repayments for the current year 1950-51 are estimated at £17 million.
§ Mr. Prescottasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware of the concern occasioned by the fact that consideration cannot be given to payment of post-war credits in case of hardship; and whether he will give further consideration to the setting up of machinery whereby payment might be made in such cases.
§ Sir S. CrippsAs I said in my Budget speech this year, we cannot afford any further release of post-war credits at present. The question of payment in hardship cases has been examined on a number of occasions, but it has not been found practicable to devise any scheme.