§ Mr. Meacherasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families have at least one dependent child under the ages, respectively, of five, seven and 12 years; what would be the gross cost of providing a £4 per week taxed cash allowance for families in each of these groups; and what would be the cost of such an allowance for families in each of these groups if those families were excluded where the mother was in full-time work.
§ Mr. NottUp-to-date information is available only for those families with at least one dependent child under 5. The number of such families is about 3.2 million, and the gross cost of giving £4 a week after tax to each family is about £900 million. If families in which the mother works for more than 30 hours a week are excluded, the figures are about 3 million and about £850 million. The estimates of numbers are based on a 1 per cent. sample of the 1971 Census of Population and relate to Great Britain.