asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish figures showing the combined value of family allowance/child benefit and child tax allowances/residual child tax allowances for a family with three dependent children aged 16, 14 and 12 years as a percentage of the value of single person's tax allowance, assuming tax at the standard rate, in each year since 1960.

I will let the hon. Member have a reply as soon as possible.

		Real Weekly Take·Home pay at September 1977 prices			Real Weekly Net Income at September 1977 prices
		March £	June £	December £	March £	June £	December £
1967	…	53·91	53·92	54·69	55·11	55·12	55·87
1968	…	55·12	53·20	53·96	56·28	55·33	56·45
1969	…	53·42	53·77	54·09	55·88	56·19	56·48
1970	…	54·55	60·70	61·56	56·89	62·99	63·77
1971	…	61·06	61·91	62·16	63·21	63·99	64·19
1972	…	63·35	65·67	66·93	65·35	67·63	68·81
1973	…	66·91	67·36	66·39	68·75	69·15	68·10
1974	…	65·27	65·38	69·22	66·90	66·92	70·65
1975	…	66·47	62·50	64·07	67·81	64·54	65·97
1976	…	63·53	64·17	62·66	65·38	65·95	64·32
1977	…	60·38	60·51	—	61·97	63·04	—

"Take-home pay" is gross earnings less income tax and national insurance contributions; "net income" is take-home pay plus family allowance for years up to 1976 and child benefits for 1977.Average earnings for years up to 1960 are the Department of Employment's October Survey estimates of the average earnings of full-time adult male manual workers adjusted to give an estimated figure for March, June and December by the monthly index of average earnings. For later years the April New Earnings Survey estimates of the average earnings of full-time adult male workers in all occupations, manual and non-manual, have been updated by the index of average earnings to give estimates for the following March, June and December.The price index used is the general index of retail prices—all items for the appropriate month.For years up to and including 1974, it has been assumed that the employee was not contracted out of the graduated pension scheme.For June 1977 the figures incorporate the allowances in the Finance (Income Tax Reliefs) Bill.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to the Written Answer to the hon. Member for Blaby, Official Report, 22nd November, column 709, if he will convert that answer into a quarterly series by providing comparable figures for March, June and December for each of the relevant years.

, pursuant to his reply, [Official Report, 28th November 1977; Vol. 940, c. 50], gave the following information:Assuming that the man is on average earnings, the figures for March, June and December are as follows: