Finance Bill

The hon. Lady’s comments bring me to the second argument that the Chancellor used in disputing the figure of 5.3 million household losers, which was the take-up of working tax credits. I will not dwell on the point, but he claimed that the take-up will substantially increase. For households with no children, the current take-up rate by expenditure is about 25 per cent., and by person it is 19 per cent. In giving evidence to the Treasury Committee, the Chancellor produced some figures which no one had seen before. They related to working tax credit take-up as a whole, as opposed to households without children. He said that a further 100,000 were now claiming, but he was not able to give a percentage figure. I recall reading an article in The Daily Telegraph that reported that the Chancellor once tore a strip off an official who was unable to give percentage figures. The Chancellor gave an overall number, and I have tabled a parliamentary question to find out the percentage for households without children. Given that the Chancellor had claimed that there was an increase and confidently predicted further increases, I decided to table yet another parliamentary question, and again I have had success in obtaining an answer. I do not know whether the right hon. Member for Birkenhead feels victimised by that. Perhaps I am more popular with the Chancellor than he is.