§ Mr. Michael Brownasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether he will estimate how many more invalidity pensioners would pay tax if invalidity 727W benefits were treated as taxable income; and whether he will explain the basis for any estimates he may give;
(2) whether he will estimate how many invalidity pensioners currently pay income tax.
§ Mr. Peter ReesI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave on 12 May 1980.—[Vol. 984, c. 382.] That reply quotes a very rough estimate of 400,000 as the possible order of magnitude of numbers of invalidity benefit recipients whose annual income would not exceed their personal tax allowance if the benefit were brought into tax this year. That estimate had to be made without knowledge of the numbers who are already taxpayers. It is mainly the lack of knowledge of the other income over the tax year of invalidity benefit recipients which subjects the estimate of 400,000 to the wide margin of error referred to in the earlier reply.