HC Deb 06 June 1978 vol 951 cc126-8W
Mr. Tebbit

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing the increase in price in cash terms each month since March 1974 of a basket of goods and services representative of the retail price index, costing £10 at that date, to the latest date available.

Mr. Denzil Davies

The table below shows (i) in new pence the increase in cost over the previous month of the basket of goods and services represented by the all-items index of the general index of retail prices, taking the cost of the basket at £10 in March 1974.

(ii) the percentage increase over the previous 12 months, for each April. Month-to-month changes are influenced

1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78
p % p % p % p % p %
May 15 53 17 14
June 10 25 7 18
July 10 14 3 2
August 1 8 22 9
September 12 11 20 10
October 21 20 29 8
November 20 16 22 9
December 16 18 21 9
January 30 19 43 11
February 19 18 17 11
March 24 8 16 11
April 34 15.2 46 21.7 28 18.9 44 17.5 28 7.9

Mr. Hordern

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing the proportion of income taken up by taxation and national insurance contributions of a family consisting of husband, wife and two children aged under 11 years when the husband's earnings were the national average, in each of the last 20 years.

Mr. Robert Sheldon

The figures are as follows:

Year align="center"Percentage of income taken in income tax and national insurance contributions
1958–59 5.6
1959–60 5.9
1960–61 6.6
1961–62 8.7
1962–63 8.9
1963–64 8.3
1964–65 9.7
1965–66 11.3
1966–67 11.9
1967–68 13.1
1968–69 16.2
1969–70 17.5
1970–71 19.8
1971–72 18.7
1972–73 18.2
1973–74 20.4
1974–75 22.6
1975–76 25.3
1976–77 24.9
1977–78 23.0

For years up to and including 1969–70, average earnings are the Department of Employment's estimates of the average earnings of full-time male manual workers in October of each year. For later years, the figures are based on the average of the new earnings survey estimates of the average earnings of full-time male manual workers in April at the start and

by changing seasonal food prices, some regularly spaced factors such as the changes in the levels of local authority and water rates at the end of the financial year, and adventitious factors, as well as by underlying trends.

finish of each income tax year, except for 1977–78 where the April 1977 NES estimate has been updated to October 1977 by the monthly index of average earnings.

For the purpose of the calculations, income has been taken to include family allowance for years up to 1976–77 and child benefits for 1977–78. For years prior to 1975–76, it has been assumed that the employee was not contracted out of the graduated pension scheme.