§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment what would be the overall cost of guaranteeing every adult person currently unemployed a job at £1.50 per hour for a maximum of 40 hours per week; and what is the present cost per individual of unemployment support from all types of benefits and rebates, temporary employment and early retirement subsidies and loss of tax and national insurance contribution revenue.
§ Mr. BrittanI have been asked to reply.
In answer to the first part of the question I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 23 November.—[Vol. 13, c. 270.]
As for the cost per individual of unemployment support, on 18 November I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton) a figure of £165 million for the additional cost of benefits, rent and rates rebates and administration resulting from a 100,000 increase in the number of people registered as unemployed in 1981–82.—[Vol. 13, c. 158–59.] This gives an average figure of £1,650 per person. Estimates of the taxes and national insurance contributions which the unemployed might have paid would depend on a range of assumptions. It would be misleading to give a single figure.
Total expenditure on special employment and training measures for both adults and young people is estimated to be £1,100 million in 1981–82. This expenditure is estimated by the Department of Employment to have reduced the unemployment register by an average of 320,000 during the first nine months of 1981–82. This suggests an average gross annual cost per head of about £3,400—but the cost varies significantly between schemes.