§ Mr. Rookerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the current value of personal allowances of single and married persons, respectively, if they were equated with the value of supplementary benefit requirements for 1978–79, assuming no special additions and applying the national average for rent and rates element; and what would be the additional cost to the revenue of raising personal allowances to these levels as compared with proposed rates in the Budget Statement.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 24th April 1978; Vol. 948, c. 462], gave the following information:
The value of the single and married persons allowances would be £1,153 and £1,637 respectively and the cost of increasing the personal allowances for single and married persons to those amounts would be about £830 million for 1978–79 after taking into account the proposals in the Budget Statement. This does not include the cost of about £200 million of increasing the wife's earnings allowance in line with the increase in the single allowance.