§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Prime Minister if, in view of the Treasury estimates on the cost of each additional unemployed person referred to in the February edition of the Treasury's Economic Progress Report, she will estimate the total cost of unemployment and compare it with the cost of funding all the fit and able adult unemployed in employment at £60 per week.
§ The Prime MinisterAs the ankle in the Economic Progress Report makes clear, it is not possible to derive estimates of "the total cost of unemployment" from the information contained in it.
The calculations in the article also assumed that the average unemployed person would have earned £4,320 per annum in employment, or over £80 per week. If a lower estimate of £60 per week had been made, the Exchequer cost of an additional unemployed person would also have been lower. Moreover, if the Government were to expand public sector employment they would also have to pay, in addition to the basic wage, the employers' national insurance contribution and surcharge, and to meet increased administrative and supervisory costs.