§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he has yet concluded consultations on the proposal announced on 18 January 1980, Official Report, column 892, to deduct pay-as-you-earn income tax from national insurance pensions; and what increase in staff will be required by his Department to carry out this task.
§ Mr. RossiThe Inland Revenue wrote to a number of representative organisations shortly after the proposals were announced, and it will be contacting them again later this year.
The increase in staff required in the Department of Health and Social Security to implement the proposals will depend on such matters as the number of pensioners affected and the outcome of the detailed work on the procedures necessary, which is currently going ahead. However, as my hon. and learned Friend, the Minister of State, Treasury, made clear in his reply to my hon. Friend, the Member for Bedford (Mr. Skeet) on 18 January 1980, the increase in staff in the Department of Health and Social Security will be far outweighed by the staff savings in the Inland Revenue—[Vol. 976, c. 892.]