§ Mr. Nicholas BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when he will publish the April 1988 edition of the tax benefit model tables; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter LloydI have placed copies of these tables in the Library today.
We have improved the presentation of the tables. By including take-home pay and net income before as well as after housing costs, we have made clearer the steps by which gross earnings are turned into final figures. We have also replaced the heading "marginal tax rate" by "marginal tax/benefit withdrawal rate". This more accurately describes the marginal deduction from income which occurs as gross earnings rise. As in previous editions, and in order to illustrate fully the interplay between the tax and the benefit systems, the tables apply to local authority tenants. This year we have reflected this in the title of the tables.
In the tables expenses which claimants are expected to meet themselves are now treated as a part of net disposable income rather than deducted as they were before. This applies in particular to water service charges and fares to work. For those out of work and receiving income support, water service charges are treated like any other ordinary item of domestic expenditure. No particular fares-to-work figure, including the average, can represent the range of costs which occur in practice. Moreover, as many as one in three working people have no travel-to-work costs. The tables, therefore, assume no fares to work or other work-related expenses, but anyone
Month ending 7 April 1987 5 May 1987 2 June 1987 30 June 1987 28 July 1987 25 August 1987 22 September 1987 20 October 1987 17 November 1987 15 December 1987 Pensioner claims 44,940 29,678 32,581 29,447 29,493 29,172 25,576 28,326 33,385 37,057 Pensioner awards 15,766 11,488 13,870 13,099 13,350 13,474 11,838 12,832 14,079 14,533 Unemployed claims 237,316 201,428 243,318 248,918 407,275 343,851 359,695 338,023 278,325 233,861 Unemployed awards 180,506 157,519 191,536 197,897 344,576 277,976 301,629 273,011 220,325 184,073 Other claims 79,073 62,457 74,867 72,503 79,239 80,120 77,122 83,390 81,949 74,023 Other awards 42,260 34,891 41,752 40,598 45,106 44,986 45,108 47,792 45,883 41,008
Month ending 12 January 1988 9 February 1988 8 March 1988 8 April 1988 29 April 1988 31 May 1988 30 June 1988 31 July 1988 31 August 1988 30 September 1988 31 October 1988 Pensioner claims 27,525 41,695 50,079 59,579 17,867 39,387 37,469 28,838 28,347 22,008 28,563 Pensioner awards 10,603 16,648 17,805 18,901 8,399 19,907 19,278 15,442 15,037 12,504 15,550 Unemployed claims 186,828 254,803 219,918 205,795 87,810 182,543 227,364 325,864 274,054 268,409 246,098 Unemployed awards 147,739 203,520 169,123 157,004 74,097 153,171 192,091 288,723 234,408 233,869 207,785 Other claims 54,819 79,503 81,732 84,677 30,385 62,676 68,360 63,974 67,732 63,963 69,652 Other awards 30,631 46,119 43,924 44,158 19,914 41,770 46,355 45,511 47,938 47,486 49,329 Note: Recording of the information changes from four weekly to calendar monthly from April 1988.
700Wwishing to deduct a particular amount, for example, the estimated average amount of £6.30 (which would be consistent with previous years figures), can make the appropriate adjustment to the net income figures shown in the tables.
Despite these improvements, the examples in the tables remain arbitrary. They cannot reflect, except by chance, the actual circumstances of particular people and cannot claim to be representative of the population at large. The tables use average rents and local authority rates so they do not reflect the full range of housing costs which people can pay. The family characteristics in the tables are chosen only to illustrate various features of the social security system.