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27 Apr 2007 : Column 1366W—continued
Gold and Foreign Exchange Reserves
Mrs. May: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what advice he received from the Bank of England before his decision to sell the Treasury’s bullion reserves between 1999 and 2002. [132892]
Ed Balls [holding answer 20 April 2007]: Treasury officials provided the advice to the Chancellor leading to his decision to sell 395 tonnes of gold between July 1999 and March 2002. This advice was provided after technical consultation with the Bank of England.
HM Revenue and Customs
Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the approach taken to local economic impact surveys will be in relation to offices classified by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as being individual locations, with particular reference to the Porthmadog HMRC office. [134381]
John Healey: HMRC is undertaking a series of regional planning reviews of all its accommodation to bring it into line with future operational requirements. For the purpose of these reviews offices have been grouped into three categories: urban centres, clusters of offices, and individual locations (offices more than 25km from any other HMRC office), of which Porthmadog is one.
Each review will include a consultation exercise and detailed feasibility work. An impact assessment will be produced for every office, in all categories, which is identified at the end of this stage of the review process
as a candidate for closure. The assessments will consider the social and economic effects of closure on staff, customers and the wider community. Final decisions will be taken in the light of these assessments.
Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 13 March 2007, Official Report, column 280W, on ministerial policy advisers, whether the Council of Economic Advisers is involved in announcements outside the Treasury's remit. [133658]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the Treasury Press Notices of 4 August 1997 and 28 June 2006:
National Income
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average income of each decile was in financial year 2006-07. [134501]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 27 April 2007:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the average income for each decile was in the financial year 2006/07. I am replying in her absence. (134501).
Estimates for 2006/07 are not yet available. The latest data covers the financial year 2004/05 and is in the ONS analysis ‘The effects of taxes and benefits on household income’. This can be found on the National Statistics website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/taxesbenefits. The data for 2005/06 is due to be published on the website on 17th May 2007. The analysis is based on the annual Expenditure and Food Survey, which is a sample survey covering approximately 7,000 households in the UK.
The table below shows both gross and disposable income for income decile groups. The income decile groups are determined by ranking households according to their equivalised disposable income. Equivalised incomes are standardised to take into account different sizes and compositions of households and are standardised in relation to a two adult household with no children.
| Average incomes by decile groups of ALL households—United Kingdom, 2004-05 | |||||||||||
| Average per household (£ per year) | |||||||||||
| Decile groups of all households ranked by equivalised disposable income | |||||||||||
| Bottom | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | Top | All households | |
| (1) Gross income, includes income from wages/salaries, self-employment income, investment income, occupational pensions, and state benefits. (2) Disposable income is income available after the deduction of income tax, employees’ national insurance contributions and council tax. Source: Office for National Statistics. | |||||||||||
National Insurance Contributions
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate how much would be raised if the upper income limit on national insurance contributions were to be abolished. [133561]
Ed Balls: The yield from removing the upper earnings limit for employees Class 1 national insurance contributions is around £8,880 million for 2007-08. This estimate includes the yield from the consequent increase in the upper profit limit for Class 4 contributions paid by the self-employed, and the cost of the increase in employee and employer rebates for contracting out of state second pension.
This excludes any estimate of behavioural effects which could be significant given the scale of the change.
The estimate is consistent with Budget 2007 assumptions and assumes that the NHS allocation contribution rates are unchanged.
Olympic Games: Greater London
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer from which Government Departments' budgets the additional £5 billion to be provided by central Government towards the cost of the Olympics will be provided. [133714]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Gentleman to my answer of 16 April 2007, Official Report, column 410W, to his earlier question.
Pensions
Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what assessment he has made of the impact of interest rates on pension funds over the last 30 years; [133722]
(2) what assessment he has made of the impact of fluctuations in the stock market on pensions over the last 30 years; [133723]
(3) what assessment he has made of the impact of pensions mis-selling on current pensions; [133724]
(4) what assessment he has made of the economic impact of interest rates on pension funds over the last 30 years; [133725]
(5) what estimate he has made of the total reduction in pension contributions due to pension holidays in each of the last 30 years. [133726]
Ed Balls:
Key factors that have affected pensions and pension funds in recent years were fully set out by the Chancellor in the debate in the House on occupational pensions on 17 April. The Government are not aware of any systematic and quantified assessment of the relative impact of different factors on pension schemes over the last 30 years. The Annex to Chapter 3 of the Pensions Commission's First Report provides an analysis of the main long-term trends affecting private
sector final salary pensions over the last 30 years. The Purple Book published by the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund also provides recent and historical data on Defined Benefit pension schemes.
Pensions Dividend Tax Credit
Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes there were to the pensions dividend tax credit between 1979 and 1997. [133727]
Ed Balls: The rate of the payable tax credit on dividends for all tax exempt shareholders was lowered in the following years:
1979: from 33 per cent. to 30 per cent.
1986: from 30 per cent. to 29 per cent.
1987: from 29 per cent. to 27 per cent.
1988: from 27 per cent. to 25 per cent.
1993: from 25 per cent. to 20 per cent.
Repossession Orders
Bob Russell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many mortgage housing repossessions were recorded in each of the last 30 financial years. [133810]
Ed Balls: The Council of Mortgage Lenders publishes calendar year data showing the level of repossessions of mortgaged properties, which is available at:
Tax Allowances
Lorely Burt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the total cost of the ending of means testing of personal allowances for people aged between 65 and 74 years. [133762]
Ed Balls [holding answer 26 April 2007]: The cost of removing the tapering of the personal allowance for 2007-08 is estimated at £360 million for people aged between 65 and 74 years and £220 million for those aged 75 or over.
This estimate is based on the 2004-05 Survey of Personal Incomes projected forward in line with Budget 2007 assumptions.
The figures exclude any estimate of behavioural response which could be significant given the scale of the change.
Taxation: Overpayments
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps are taken to ensure that people who have made a tax overpayment are aware that they are entitled to reclaim it. [133602]
John Healey: There are three main systems by which HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) collect income tax from individuals: self-assessment, Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and the tax deduction scheme for interest paid by banks and building societies. Overpayment of tax may occur in any of these systems.
The self-assessment tax return (supported by the guidance notes), the self-assessment Statement of Account and the Internet "View Liabilities and Payments" Service all offer people the opportunity to claim repayment of tax overpaid.
When HMRC carry out an "Initial Assessing Review" for a PAYE customer, if an overpayment of tax has occurred and all the necessary information is available, HMRC will make an immediate repayment. Failing this, they will write to the customer to tell the customer that there appears to be an overpayment of tax and ask for the further information required to calculate the refund due.
In addition to this, the Form P45(2) issued by an employer to an employee on cessation of employment contains advice on claiming any repayment of tax.
The HMRC website includes sections on “I want to claim a tax repayment” and a “Student Tax Checker” which enables customers to see whether they have paid too much tax based on actual income received.
Tax deducted from bank and building society interest
A customer who has tax deducted from their savings income may be a non-taxpayer. A claim for repayment can be made by completing form R40 “Claim for Repayment”. Every year HMRC send these forms to customers who made such claims in the previous year. Help is also readily available by phoning the “Taxback” helpline or visiting the “Taxback” pages of the HMRC website.
Taxation: Pensions
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the net effect on contributions to the Exchequer would be if the pensions contributions by all individuals qualified for tax relief as basic income tax rate only. [133556]
Ed Balls: Latest detailed estimates of the annual cost of tax relief on approved pension schemes are available in Table 7.9 on Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs website at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/pensions/menu.htm
If relief on individual contributions were constrained to the basic rate of tax, this amount of relief would fall by one quarter.
Tobin Tax
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate how much would be raised if a Tobin tax of (a) 0.05 per cent. and (b) 0.1 per cent. was levied on all transactions on the UK stock market. [133558]
John Healey: No such estimates are available.
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