§ 30. Mr. Sainsburyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the change in personal disposable income between the last quarter of 1973 and the second quarter of 1977.
§ Mr. Denzil Davies:An increase of 75.5 per cent. Real personal disposable income, which takes account of changes in consumer prices, fell by 2.8 per cent.
§ Mr. Ripponasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what pre-tax and post-tax income would now be required to provide the same standard of living as that enjoyed in 1966 by a married man with three children under 11 years of age and a £6,000 mortgage on a gross income of £3,500 a year.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon:I will let the hon. Member have a reply as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer by what percentage the real disposable income of 193W an employee on average industrial wages has increased since the present Government were elected inFebruary 1974.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 8th November 1977; Vol. 938, c. 78–9], gave the following information:
Taking a married couple without children, when the husband's earnings are at the average for manual workers, real take-home pay is estimated to have decreased by 6.7 per cent. between March 1974 and August 1977, the latest month for which figures of earnings are available.
Take-home pay is gross earnings less tax and national insurance contributions, and real take-home pay takes account of changes of prices using the general index of retail prices, all items. Average earnings have been estimated by updating the estimates in the New Earnings Survey for full-time male manual workers at April 1973 and April 1977, using the monthly index of average earnings. The available information does not cover any other sources of income of the specified workers. It is assumed that in March 1974 the husband was not "contracted out" of the graduated pension scheme.
The figure of tax in 1977–78 takes account of the Chancellor's proposals announced on 26th October 1977.