§ Mr. George Cunninghamasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the gain to the Revenue if the tax-free allowances of a taxpayer were abated for one fifty-second for any week in respect of which he received unemployment benefit; and what is his estimate of the additional number of civil servants needed to administer such a change.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 19th January 1977; Vol. 924, c. 236], gave the following information:
I regret that the information on which to base a precise calculation is not available. However, it is estimated that the additional yield at current levels of unemployment would be between £100 million and £200 million. The extra staff costs of a change of this kind would depend very much on the way in which it was operated but they would be likely to be substantial.