§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the tax payable for a man with a wife and two children earning £38 per week, assuming that the conditional tax thres-holds apply; and what family income supplement he would be entitled to, assuming new rates of benefit.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonAssuming that the children were not over 11 years of age, the weekly figures for tax and family income supplement would be £2.85 and £2.00 respectively.
§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the loss of revenue if the tax thresholds, as proposed in the Budget: (a) if agreement is reached and (b) if agreement is not reached, were raised to social security levels.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 6th May, 1976; Vol. 910, c. 470], gave the following information:
To equate the thresholds with the corresponding supplementary benefit levels (including an allowance for rent and rates), the thresholds for single and mar- 128W ried couples would need to be raised by varying amounts depending on the number of children. For some large families with more than four children tax thresholds under both (a) and (b) are already higher than the corresponding supplementary benefit levels operative during 1976–77.
Under (a), which assumes that the conditional and unconditional Budget proposals apply, increases of £160 and £190 in the single and married personal allowances respectively would ensure that all tax thresholds regardless of family size were at least as large as the corresponding supplementary benefit levels. The estimated cost of such increases in 1976–77 (leaving the wife's earned income allowance unchanged) would be £1,230 million in addition to the cost of the Budget proposals.
Under (b), which assumes that only the unconditional Budget proposals apply, the corresponding increases would be £220 and £320 (leaving the wife's earned income allowance unchanged). The estimated cost in 1976–77 of these increases would be £1,970 million.