§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have yet been able to develop an estimate of the cost to the taxpayer of unemployment (including benefit, loss of taxes and indirect 130WA taxes and national insurance contributions, and the additional costs of the ill-health and social malaise attendant on unemployment.
The Earl of CaithnessThe Department of Social Security's Annual Report provides an estimate that, in the current year, a change in unemployment of 100,000 would result in a variation of £350 million in benefit expenditure. Estimates of tax revenue forgone involve estimating the indirect and direct taxes unemployed people would pay in employment. Any attempt to estimate the total cost to the taxpayer would depend on a large number of assumptions, and would be subject to great uncertainty. The Government are pursuing policies to reduce unemployment by setting a macroeconomic framework for sustainable, non-inflationary growth.