Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statistics they published on 28 June, whether they have revised their estimates of (1) the number of families affected, and (2) the Exchequer savings from those families in their original impact assessment of the policy to provide support to a maximum of two children, in each year up to 2020–21.
Answered by Lord Bates
Statistics regarding the number of families affected by the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children were published on 28 June 2018, and relate to the position at 2 April 2018. Figures showing the number of families affected in April 2019 are expected to be released in summer 2019.
The latest estimates of the Exchequer savings relating to the policy were published in table 2.2 of the Spring Budget 2017. The relevant figures are shown in the table below.
Estimated Exchequer savings from the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children, Spring Budget 2017 basis
£m | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
Savings | +310 | +765 | +1205 | +1615 | +1990 |
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statistics they published on 28 June, how many (1) families, and (2) children have been affected by the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children in each month since that policy came into effect.
Answered by Lord Bates
For the numbers of children affected by the policy at April 2018, I refer the noble Lord to my response on 25 July 2018 to the Lord Bishop of Durham (HL9479). The next statistical update, covering the position at April 2019, is expected to be released in summer 2019.
Figures for additional months are only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 5 February (HL5370), whether they have applied the Family Test to the policy to provide support to a maximum of two children; and if so, how the potential impacts on families are being taken into account.
Answered by Lord Bates
The government is committed to supporting families. To achieve this, we introduced the Family Test, which aims to ensure that impacts on family relationships and functioning are recognised early on during the process of policy development and help inform the policy decisions made by Minsters. The Family Test was introduced in 2014, and remains official government policy. The guidance for implementing the Family Test can be found here and is also attached :
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-test-assessing-the-impact-of-policies-on-families
The Family Test was considered during the development of the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children in Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit. The published Impact Assessment shows the measure will have a positive impact on overall family stability. The Impact Assessment is attached.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to postpone the extension of the policy to provide support to a maximum of two children to new Universal Credit claimants.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The policy aims to strike the appropriate balance between support for claimants with children and fairness to taxpayers and families with children who support themselves solely through work. A benefits structure that adjusts automatically to family size is ultimately not sustainable, and parents who support themselves solely through work would not generally expect to see their wages increase simply because of the addition of a new child to their family.
There are exceptions in place to support those unable to make choices about the number of children in their household.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will ensure continuity between the European Social Fund and UK Shared Prosperity Fund to ensure there is no break in funding for disadvantaged individuals and communities.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The government knows the value of projects funded by the European Structural Fund to disadvantaged communities and individuals. We continue to develop the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which will seek to reduce inequalities across the whole of the UK.
In the mean time the UK will remain in European Structural and Investment Funds until the 2014-20 programme closes, under the terms of the Joint Report made in December 2017.
This will ensure that local areas across the UK continue to have access to their notional allocations, providing the projects are aligned to domestic priorities and represent value for money and is subject to agreed performance and spend targets, under a business as usual approach.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will ensure that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund provides adequate levels of support for people to find work, improve their skills and contribute to their communities.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The government knows the value of projects funded by the European Structural Fund to disadvantaged communities and individuals. We continue to develop the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which will seek to reduce inequalities across the whole of the UK.
In the mean time the UK will remain in European Structural and Investment Funds until the 2014-20 programme closes, under the terms of the Joint Report made in December 2017.
This will ensure that local areas across the UK continue to have access to their notional allocations, providing the projects are aligned to domestic priorities and represent value for money and is subject to agreed performance and spend targets, under a business as usual approach.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish the consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The government announced in the Industrial Strategy white paper that we intend to launch a full public consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and we will do so later in the year.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that potential claimants are aware of the introduction of the two-child limit on Child Tax Credit and the child element of Universal Credit.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Claimants were alerted to the policy changes at the time they were announced by high level messaging on the GOV.UK website in 2015.
Tax credits claimants were informed about the upcoming policy change in a letter that was sent with their renewals notices between April and June 2016. A follow up flyer will go out in all new claims packs and renewals packs from April 2017.
In August 2016 high level amendments were made to the GOV.UK website’s information about Child Tax Credit to advise potential claimants about these changes.
Further details were published as part of a consultation in October 2016 and in response to the consultation in January 2017.
HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have also worked with representative bodies and stakeholders who will be able to advise claimants about the changes.
All tax credits products (for example, award notices, leaflets, and supporting notes) have been updated with a high level message outlining the new policy.
DWP will offer support to claimants through Jobcentres by trained staff as needed.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the impact of the recent increase in inflation on the number of children in poverty; and what plans they have for protecting low income families against the rising cost of basic essentials.
Answered by Lord Henley
Impacts of the latest increase in inflation on families with children have not been estimated.
However the Department’s latest Households Below Average Income statistics to 2016 published on 16th March 2017 does show how the number of children in low income households has changed with reference to inflation (the measure is called absolute low income). Since 2010, there has been a decrease of 200,000 children before housing costs (BHC) in absolute low income. After housing costs (AHC) had been taken into account, there were 100,000 fewer children in absolute low income since 2010.
In terms of proportions, there have also been reductions in the rates of absolute low income on both bases - BHC down by 2 percentage points, and AHC down by 1 percentage point since 2010.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many families with three or more children born before April 2017 they project will be affected by the introduction of the two-child limit on Universal Credit.
Answered by Lord Henley
The information requested is not available.