§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for Employment, (1) how much was paid out in redundancy payments in each of the years since the beginning of the scheme;
(2) how many persons have qualified for redundancy payment in each of the years since the beginning of the scheme.
§ Mr. BryanThe following figures relate to payments to employees under the statutory scheme:
Year Amount Number of Persons 6th December 1965 to 31st December, £ 1966 26,592,000 138,895 1967 50,213,000 249,782 1968 61,837,000 264,491 1969 61,886,000 250,764 1970 72,541,000 275,563 *1971 107,833,000 369,000 * Includes provisional figures for the quarter ended 31st December, 1971.
§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current state of the redundancy payments fund; and how this compares with previous years.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithAt the end of last week the Redundancy Fund was in deficit by £4,796,000. The position at the end of each previous year was as follows:
86W Deficits in the Redundancy Fund may be covered by loans from the National Loans Fund up to £8 million and, by Order subject to affirmative resolution of both Houses of Parliament, up to £20 million. To meet contingencies, my right hon. Friend has today laid a draft Order providing for an increase in the borrowing limit to £20 million for a period of two years.
- 1966—deficit—£1 million approximately.
- 1967—deficit—£7,042.000.
- 1968—deficit—£16,269,000.
- 1969—deficit—£7,136,000.
- 1970—surplus—£2.754,000.
- 1971—deficit—£4,773,000.