§ Mr. George Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much of the cost of the proposed increase in child benefits in April 1978 will not be counted as public expenditure by reason of being offset by gains to revenue from the proposed reduction in child tax allowances; and how much will not be counted as an increase in expenditure over figures published in the last expenditure.
§ Mr. OrmeThe cost of increasing child benefit in April 1978 after taking into account the savings in social security child dependency allowances will be £630 million. The gain to revenue from the reduction in child tax allowances will be £320 million, leaving a net additional cost of £310 million above the figure given in the public expenditure White Paper (Cmnd. 6721).