§ 60. Mr. Meacherasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate, respectively, the financial and administrative costs of extending tax credits to all supplementary benefit recipients, the self-employed and those earning less than £8 per week; and by how much supplementary benefit payments, which would otherwise be payable, would be reduced.
§ Mr. NottInsufficient information about the numbers and the income of people in these categories is available for estimates to be made of the financial costs. Some information about supplementary benefit recipients and the self-employed is available, but this is not complete.
Those earning less than £8 a week are outside the tax net, and hence there is no Inland Revenue information available; and since they do not all receive supplementary benefit the Department of Health and Social Security does not have complete information. The administrative costs would depend on how the credits were to be paid, but they could be substantial.