§ Mr. Churchillasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the gross revenue likely to accrue to the Exchequer through legislation to make all social security benefits taxable.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 20th June 1975; Vol. 893, c. 556], gave the following information:
I regret that sufficient information is not available to make a reliable estimate of the additional tax yield to be expected if all social security benefits were to be taxable. However, if the group of benefits to be made taxable were limited to those taxable at the start of the national insurance scheme in 1948—viz., sickness, unemployment, and maternity benefit—and subsequently introduced invalidity benefit for the long-term sick the yield to the Revenue might be of the order of £400 million.