§ Mr. Alan HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security which of the assumptions concerning gross domestic product growth and unemployment in the three cases in "The Growth of Social Security" were used as the basis for calculating figure 10 in the Social Security departmental report, Cm3213. [32485]
§ Mr. BurtThe projections in "The Growth of Social Security" all assumed an unemployment level of around 3 million in 1992–93 which either stayed constant (case 1) or fell (cases 2 and 3) over the period to 1999–2000. None of these cases were appropriate for the latest projections—figure 10 of the Social Security departmental report—which assumed that the unemployment level remained constant at 2.1 million from 1995–96 to 2000–2001.