To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how he made the calculation that the impact of the Budget on the lowest paid members of the armed forces who are single is that they will be worse off by the equivalent of £1 per week. (131081)

[holding answer 16 April 2007]: The calculation is based on the impact of the income tax rates and allowances for 2007-08 given in the Budget report, together with the reforms to personal tax which come into effect on 1 April 2008.

Those with children may benefit from changes to the child element of child tax credit and the working tax credit threshold.

Other relevant recent changes to armed forces remuneration include the pay rise for all service personnel which came into effect on 1 April 2007, when the annual salary of the lowest paid fully trained service personnel increased from £14,323 to £15,677—an increase in gross pay of £26 per week; and the new operational bonus introduced in October, which amounts to £12.31 per day, tax free, for all those deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq, or the Balkans.