§ Mrs. Ann Taylorasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what he estimates to be the total cost to the economy in terms of lost revenue arising from unemployment levels of half a million, three-quarters of a million, one million, one and a quarter million, one and a half million, one and three-quarter million, and two million.
§ Mr. DellUnemployment has implications for the level of receipts of many kinds of tax, and there are serious difficulties in estimating the overall effects on revenue. So far as income tax is concerned, on the assumption that all the unemployed would have received earnings for the full tax year at the estimated average weekly rate in July 1975. the latest available estimate, and were liable to tax at the average annual rate for that level of income, the tax which would have been paid is approximately as follows:
But these figures cannot be taken as representing the total cost to the economy in terms of lost revenue of these levels of unemployment.
Unemployed (million) Tax (£ million) ½ 310 ¾ 460 1 615 1¼ 770 1½ 925 1¾ 1,075 2 1,230