§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is her latest estimate of the number of low-income families in Wales who have a marginal tax rate of over 50p in the £ and if she will give a breakdown of these families by gross weekly earnings.
§ Mr. O'MalleyEstimates of the number of low-income families in Great Britain who have a marginal tax rate of over 50p in the £ are based on Family Expenditure Survey data. The number of sample cases is too small to permit any reliable estimate to be made for Wales.
§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is her latest estimate of the number of low-income families in the United Kingdom who have a marginal tax rate of over 50p in the £ and if she will give a breakdown of these families by gross weekly earnings.
§ Mr. O'MalleyIt is estimated that at August 1974, the latest date for which 385W figures are available, about 450,000 families were theoretically subject to a potential marginal tax rate of more than 50p in the £.
The number of sample cases is too small to permit a breakdown of these families by gross weekly earnings.
The assumptions on which this answer is based are those given in my reply to the hon. Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) today.