§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will now estimate the net cost of employing all the unemployed, assuming a wage of £75 a week, using the same basis as in the answer to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North Official Report, 9 December 1980, c. 589.
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§ Mr. TebbitIt is not possible to produce a realistic estimate of the costs of employing the unemployed without making assumptions going far beyond the formal assumptions concerning pay and benefit levels to which the question refers. The range of possible assumptions concerning other factors bearing on the cost is so great that no single figure could be considered to have any meaning.