| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Working Families Tax Credit (Threshold)
Ms Buck: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the cost of increasing the threshold level of income at which Working Families Tax Credit starts to be withdrawn to (a) £120, (b) £150 and (c) £200. [1561]
Dawn Primarolo: The estimated annual costs are (a) £0.7 billion, (b) £1.3 billion and (c) £2.5 billion.
Household Income
Ms Buck: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the impact on the incomes of (a) lone parent families and (b) couples with children in each income decile, resulting from an increase in the threshold
11 Jul 2001 : Column: 579W
level of income at which Working Families Tax Credit starts to be withdrawn to (a) £120, (b) £150 and (c) £200. [1562]
Dawn Primarolo: The estimated percentage increases in income are shown in the following table. Each row of the table covers families in households in the decile group defined by the ranking of all households by equivalised net income before housing costs. The percentage increases shown are of the total net income of all families of that type and in that decile group.
| Equivalised | Lone parents | Couples with children | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| income | Income threshold raised to: | Income threshold raised to: | ||||
| decile group of households | (a) £120 | (b) £150 | (c) £200 | (a) £120 | (b) £150 | (c) £200 |
| Bottom | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 13 |
| 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 11 |
| 5 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 6 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 and top | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Notes:
The estimates are based on the 1999–2000 Family Resources Survey with incomes projected forward to 2001–02. The decile groups are of all households ranked by net income before housing costs (including WFTC with the current threshold of £92.90) equivalised using the McClements scale. The percentage increases are of net family incomes (not equivalised). The sample sizes are too small to yield reliable separate estimates for lone parents in the top two decile groups.
EU Budget
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the oral statement of the Economic Secretary of 3 July 2001, Official Report, column 229, regarding the net contributions of the UK, France and Italy to the EU Budget, if he will make a statement on the net contributions of (a) the UK, (b) France and (c) Italy to the EU Budget in (i) 1999, (ii) 2000 and (iii) 2001 and the projected net contributions in each case to 2006. [2961]
11 Jul 2001 : Column: 580W
Ruth Kelly: The United Kingdom's net contribution to the EC Budget in 1999 was 5.3 billion euro. The net contributions of France and Italy in 1999 were 1.2 billion euro and 1.8 billion euro respectively. Equivalent figures in respect of 2000 are not yet available. These will be available in November this year, when the European Court of Auditors publishes its annual report.
As the level of EC spending in any particular year is dependent on the annual budget-setting process, the Government do not forecast the contribution of other member states on an annual basis and comparable estimates are not therefore available for each of the years 2001–06. However, based on 1999 prices, the spending ceilings and the new system of own resources agreed at the Berlin European Council in March 1999 and the Berlin assumption of an enlargement taking in six new member states, it is estimated that the net contribution of France in 2006 will be around 5 per cent. of the EC Budget and that of Italy around 4 per cent. Based on the same assumptions, the United Kingdom's net contribution in 2006 would be around 5 per cent. of the EC Budget. In 1999, the United Kingdom's share was 6.41 per cent. compared with France (1.41 per cent.) and Italy (2.12 per cent.).
Windfall Levy
Mr. Cox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much income his Department has received from the windfall levy. [3212]
Mr. Boateng: The windfall tax on the privatised utility companies raised £5.2 billion.
VAT
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent representations he has received on the VAT threshold for small businesses. [3205]
Mr. Boateng: Representations are made regularly about the level of the VAT registration threshold. In 1998, Customs carried out a consultation exercise to seek the views of business and their representative bodies on the effects and level of the VAT registration threshold.