§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the number of widow pensioners who are (a) below the tax threshold and (b) above it ; and what the position was prior to the decision to abolish the lower rate band of taxation.
§ Mr. Peter ReesBecause it is not always necessary to identify widows as such, neither tax nor pension records can be relied upon to provide accurate counts of widows. However, it is estimated that of about 750,000 widows under age 65 who receive a national insurance widows' pension or similar benefit about half are taxpayers. There are also about 2½ million widows aged 65 or over, most of whom may be assumed to receive national insurance retirement pension, and it is thought that of the order of one-quarter of them pay tax, although this estimate is subject to a wide margin of error for the reasons already given.
Information is not available to estimate any change in the position between 1979–80 and 1980–81, although it is likely to have been very small.