§ Mr. Bakerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will estimate the total number of staff in the Inland Revenue that would be saved if the old age pension and the age allowance were raised on the same day.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 18th January 1977; Vol. 924, c. 110], gave the following information:
No staff would be saved unless the national insurance retirement pension and age allowance were raised from the beginning of the fiscal year following a period of notice which enabled the Inland Revenue to take account of the increases when the PAYE codings were fixed, a task normally carried out in the previous autumn. In that event the saving would be about 350 staff.