Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the potential merits of subsidising access to wraparound care for (a) vulnerable children and (b) children of key workers.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The department regularly meets a range of stakeholders, which includes discussion of parent’s access to childcare.
The Government appreciates that the wraparound childcare sector, like many sectors, is facing unprecedented financial pressures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is for this reason that the Government has made a range of financial packages of support available for businesses to access throughout the current crisis. This includes tax relief, business loans or cash grants through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employed Support Scheme (SEISS), as well as a £594 million discretionary fund for councils and the Devolved Administrations to support local businesses that may not be eligible for other support, during the current national lockdown.
Additionally, the Government has encouraged all local authorities to consider what local grants could be used to bolster the childcare sector in their areas, to safeguard sufficient childcare provision for children of critical workers and vulnerable children. This includes funding streams such as the Holiday Activities and Food Programme. The expanded programme, which comprises a £220 million fund to be delivered through grants to local authorities, will be expanded to reach all local authority areas over the Easter, summer, and Christmas holidays in 2021.
The Government is also acutely aware of the impact that coronavirus has had on young people. That is why more than £60m of the unprecedented £750m package for the voluntary and charity sector has been directed towards organisations supporting children and young people. This is on top of £200m government investment in early intervention and prevention support initiatives to support children and young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence, through the Youth Endowment Fund.
In addition to wraparound childcare providers, parents / carers can also utilise the following to support their childcare needs:
Tax-Free Childcare also provides working parents with 20% support on childcare costs up to £10,000. Eligible working families with children under 12 (or under 17 if disabled) will receive up to £2,000 per child per year (or £4000 per child per year for disabled children) towards their childcare bills.
TFC can be used for activities out of school hours.
Low income working parents may be eligible for support through the Universal Credit childcare offer, which covers up to 85% of eligible childcare costs, or through Working Tax Credit, which covers up to 70% of costs. Both can be used for childcare that is outside school hours.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of supporting self-employed workers who have had their income affected by the covid-19 pandemic in paying their tax returns for 2019-20.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has taken unprecedented steps to support the self-employed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme receiving claims from about 2.7 million individuals so far, totalling over £18.9 billion as of 31 December.
The Government recognises that the pandemic may have affected the ability of self-employed individuals to meet their tax obligations. As announced in the Winter Economy Plan, the Government has given the self-employed and other taxpayers more time to pay taxes due in January 2021, building on the self-assessment deferral provided in July 2020.
Taxpayers with up to £30,000 of Self-Assessment liabilities due will be able to use HMRC’s self-service Time to Pay facility to secure a plan to pay over an additional 12 months. This means that Self-Assessment liabilities due in July 2020 will not need to be paid in full until January 2022.
If taxpayers or their agents are struggling to obtain the required information in time for their Self-Assessment return to be submitted by the filing date, they can provide provisional figures on their return and then provide HMRC with the actual figures as soon as they can. They must state that provisional figures are being provided by ticking the appropriate data item box on the return.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the stamp duty holiday to mitigate the effect of logistical delays occurring during property transactions as a result of the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The temporary SDLT relief was designed to stimulate immediate momentum in a property market where property transactions fell by as much as 50 per cent during the COVID-19 lockdown in March. This will also support the jobs of people whose employment relies on custom from the property industry, such as retailers and tradespeople.
The Government will continue to monitor the market. However, as the relief was designed to provide an immediate stimulus to the property market, the Government does not plan to extend this relief.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will reduce business rates for (a) local shops and (b) businesses during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jesse Norman
This year the Government has provided an unprecedented business rates holiday for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties due to the direct adverse effects of COVID-19, worth about £10 billion.
In the 2020 Spending Review, the Government committed further support to businesses, including in retail, hospitality and leisure, by freezing the business rates multiplier for 2021-22. In order to ensure that any decisions best meet the evolving challenges posed by COVID-19, the Government will outline plans for 2021-22 reliefs in due course.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department will consider extending the Job Retention Scheme to include employees employed after the 30th October 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
For all eligibility decisions under CJRS, the Government must balance the need to support as many jobs as possible with the need to protect the scheme from fraud.
Under the CJRS extension, an employer can claim for employees who were employed and on their PAYE payroll on 30 October 2020. The employer must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee. The use of RTI allows HMRC to verify claims in the most efficient and timely way, ensuring payments can be made quickly while reducing the risk of fraud. Without the use of RTI returns it would be difficult to verify claims without significant additional checks, which would delay payment for genuine claims.
The 30 October 2020 cut-off date allowed as many people as possible to be included by going right up to the day before the announcement, while balancing the risk of fraud that existed as soon as the scheme became public. Extending the cut-off date further would have significantly increased the risk of abuse because claims could not be confidently verified against the risk of fraud by using the data after this point.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 11 November 2020 to Question 110758, if he will enable people who are long-term self-employed to submit previous self-assessment returns prior to 2018-19 for the Self-employed Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has provided, and will continue to provide, generous support to the self-employed through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
If an individual is not eligible based on their 2018-19 Self Assessment return, HM Revenue & Customs will then look at their Self Assessment returns from 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 to determine their eligibility. This reduces the impact of one-off events, such as a redundancy payment, in determining eligibility.
To calculate an individual’s average trading profits for the purposes of the SEISS grant, HMRC will consider previous Self Assessment returns prior to 2018-2019, where possible.
The grant is calculated by taking an average of yearly trading profits over the last three tax years and dividing this by four to give a three-month average. The grant will then be provided at 80% of this three-month average, capped at £7,500.
Moreover, the SEISS continues to be just one element of a comprehensive package of support for the self-employed. The Universal Credit standard allowance has been temporarily increased for 2020-21 and the Minimum Income Floor relaxed for the duration of the crisis, so that where self-employed claimants' earnings have fallen significantly, their Universal Credit award will have increased to reflect their lower earnings. In addition to this, they may also have access to other elements of the package, including Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, self-isolation support payments and other business support grants.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government plans to ensure that insurance companies do not routinely decline cover to people aged 70 years and over.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Since 2012, the Government has engaged in a voluntary signposting agreement with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) for motor and travel insurance. This was set up to certify that where an insurer or insurance broker cannot offer cover due to upper age limits on their policies, it will refer the customer to another insurer who can provide cover, or an appropriate signposting service.
This agreement is periodically reviewed, first in 2015 and most recently in 2019.
All insurers are also required to treat customers fairly under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) rules.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the financial effect of the changes to Small Brewers Relief on the smallest brewers in the UK.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The smallest brewers in the UK produce less than 2,100 hectolitres and so will be unaffected by the Government’s proposed reforms to the Small Brewers Relief taper.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the rate of VAT on refurbishment, repair and maintenance of buildings from 20 per cent to five per cent or below.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Reducing the rate of VAT on refurbishment, repair and maintenance of buildings from twenty per cent to five per cent would be very expensive. For example, such a rate for repair and renovations of buildings would cost the Exchequer approximately £4 billion per year. This would have to be balanced by a reduction in public spending, increased borrowing or increased taxation elsewhere. While the Government keeps all taxes under review, there are no plans to change the VAT treatment of the repair and renovation of buildings.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) making the uplift to universal credit and working tax credit permanent and (b) extending that uplift to legacy benefits.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The temporary £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance and Working Tax Credit basic element forms just one part of a wide-ranging package of measures to protect people’s jobs and incomes. The welfare measures announced in March, which the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates are worth £9 billion this year, are specifically aimed at providing significant temporary support to low-income families who have seen their income fall due to the immediate impact of Coronavirus.
Making the £20 per week increase permanent would require a substantial ongoing increase in public expenditure, with 2020-21 spending on working-age benefits set to be the highest since records began as a share of national income.
The Government has focused on measures that can be introduced and operationalised quickly – the most straightforward way to increase benefits for claimants during this period was to temporarily increase the Universal Credit standard allowance and the Working Tax Credit basic element. In addition, Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker's Allowance, and Income Support were increased by 1.7 per cent in April 2020 as part of the annual uprating exercise.