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Local Government Finance

Volume 175: debated on Monday 2 July 1990

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To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will estimate the cost of the poll tax transitional allowances scheme in Scotland in 1989–90 if the calculation of benefit had been based on the actual poll tax paid by each applicant in that year rather than the notional figure used in the present scheme.

It was never the intenion to base the scheme on charges higher than those considered necessary by the Government to maintain local authority services in the transition from domestic rates to the community charge. A range of projections was made when the scheme was under consideration which included the use of actual rather than assumed charges.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what he estimates will be the total cost for the transitional allowance for the poll tax for the financial year 1990–91; how many people he expects will benefit from transitional allowances in that year; and what the average payment per head will be;(2) what is his latest estimate of the total cost of the transitional allowance for the poll tax in Scotland in the financial year 1989–90; how many poll tax payers will benefit; and what the average payment per head will be.

Formal returns have not yet been made to the Scottish Office by local authorities of the numbers of people entitled to relief and the amount of relief awarded either individually or in total. Figures so far received by my Department of the numbers entitled to relief and of the cost are both informal and incomplete and do not provide an adequate basis for making a reliable estimate of the kind sought by the hon. Member.