Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential scope for fraud in claims by directors of limited companies in respect of future financial support provided in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has prioritised delivering support to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, while guarding against the risk of fraud or abuse. This meant making difficult decisions, and the Government has acknowledged that it has not been able to support everyone as they would want.
The practical issues that prevented the Government from being able to include company owner-managers in the original Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), namely not being able to verify the source of their dividend income without introducing unacceptable fraud risk, still remain.
Similarly, it would not be appropriate for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), designed to replace the immediate costs of employment, to be used to replace a distribution of net profits that have yet to be determined.
Opening up the CJRS or SEISS scheme to cover dividends, for which no up-to-date accurate data source is available, would either have required allowing “pay now check later” claims, which HMRC could not realistically have policed, or added one-to-one manual review steps which would have drastically slowed down payments and required unfeasible amounts of resources to process.
Company owner-managers may still be eligible for other support available including CJRS (in respect of their salary but not their dividends), Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, increased levels of Universal Credit, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish an equality impact assessment on the difference in financial support available to (a) workers paid through PAYE who qualified for furlough, (b) workers paid through PAYE who did not qualify for furlough, (c) self-employed workers who qualified for the self employed income support scheme, (d) self-employed workers who did not qualify for the self employed income support scheme and (e) limited company directors who paid themselves in dividends but not through PAYE.
Answered by Jesse Norman
When designing the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme policies and subsequent reforms the Government undertook an analysis of how the policies were likely to affect individuals sharing protected characteristics in line with its Public Sector Equality Duties. This is in line with the internal procedural requirements and support in place for ensuring that equalities considerations inform decisions taken by ministers.
The completion and publication of formal Equality Impact Assessment documents is not a legal or procedural requirement. Equality impacts are appropriately assessed and flagged to ministers. HMT has rigorous processes in place to ensure that it complies with its legal requirements under the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish an economic assessment of the effect of the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As the Chancellor said in his letter to the Treasury Committee on 4 November, HM Treasury does not prepare formal forecasts for the UK economy, which are the responsibility of the independent OBR. They will publish their next forecast on 25 November.
In addition, within their statutory mandates, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) produce analysis which reflect their independent judgements regarding the impact of Covid-19 on the likely path of the economy. They updated their projections in their Monetary Policy Report published on 5 November. This reflected UK restrictions announced up to 31 October, including “heightened England-wide measures for the period 5 November to 2 December”. In this scenario, GDP was revised downwards and is now expected to contract by 2% in Q4 reflecting the impact of stricter measures to control Covid-19.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to publish the report on the Government's implementation of Loan Charge changes following the Independent Loan Charge Review.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) plan to report to Parliament on the implementation of Loan Charge changes following the Independent Loan Charge Review by the end of 2020.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason financial assistance was not offered to limited company directors during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has not taken a principled stance against support for company owner-managers who pay themselves via dividends. Income from dividends is a return on investment in the company, rather than wages. Under current reporting mechanisms it is not possible for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to distinguish between dividends derived from an individual’s own company and dividends from other sources, and between dividends in lieu of employment income and as returns from other corporate activity.
This means, unlike announced support schemes which use information HMRC already hold, targeting additional support would require owner-managers to make a claim and submit information that HMRC could not efficiently or consistently verify to ensure payments were made to eligible companies for eligible activity. ?This is about identifying what is operationally feasible, managing technical complexities and fraud risks, and ensuring that other forms of support the Government has already committed to are delivered in a timely way.
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme continues to be just one element of a comprehensive package of support for individuals and businesses. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support,?increased levels of Universal Credit, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value was of shares issued through Share Incentive Plans by (a) partnership, (b) matching (c) free and (d) dividend shares in each of the last five years.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Share Incentive Plans (SIPs) is a tax-advantaged employee share scheme offered by the Government.
HMRC publishes annual statistics on Employee Share Schemes, including the value of shares, which are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/employee-share-schemes-statistics#national-statistics
The table below shows the value of awarded shares for the last four years by type of share. Figures for 2014-15 are not available due to the introduction of the Employment Related Securities service.
Table 1- Initial value of SIP shares by share type (£m)
SIP – initial value of awarded shares (£m) | Free shares | Partnership shares | Matching shares | Dividend shares |
14-15 | - | - | - | - |
15-16 | 240 | 510 | 310 | 130 |
16-17 | 120 | 430 | 260 | 130 |
17-18 | 120 | 300 | 160 | 80 |
18-19 | 110 | 310 | 170 | 70 |
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to widen participation in the (a) Save As you Earn and (b) Share Incentive Plan all-employee share schemes.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government wants to promote employee share ownership in the UK, which is why it offers tax advantaged employee share schemes such as Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plans (SIPs).
Employers can offer these schemes to share financial rewards with staff who choose to take part. This supports recruitment and retention and helps to encourage employee productivity. The Government keeps all the employee share schemes under review.
In 2018/19, 310,000 employees were granted share options under a SAYE scheme, and around 2.84 million employees were awarded or purchased partnership shares under a SIP.
Information on the employee share schemes for the 2020/21 tax year will not be available until 2021. However, the Government has taken steps to support employees in a SIP or SAYE scheme through the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes extending the payment holiday terms for employees in SAYE plans where the employee is furloughed, has had working hours reduced or has taken unpaid leave during the pandemic, and allowing furlough payments to constitute as salary so SIP contributions can continue to be deducted from these payments.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on employee participation levels in (a) Save As You Earn and (b) Share Incentive Plan schemes.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government wants to promote employee share ownership in the UK, which is why it offers tax advantaged employee share schemes such as Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plans (SIPs).
Employers can offer these schemes to share financial rewards with staff who choose to take part. This supports recruitment and retention and helps to encourage employee productivity. The Government keeps all the employee share schemes under review.
In 2018/19, 310,000 employees were granted share options under a SAYE scheme, and around 2.84 million employees were awarded or purchased partnership shares under a SIP.
Information on the employee share schemes for the 2020/21 tax year will not be available until 2021. However, the Government has taken steps to support employees in a SIP or SAYE scheme through the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes extending the payment holiday terms for employees in SAYE plans where the employee is furloughed, has had working hours reduced or has taken unpaid leave during the pandemic, and allowing furlough payments to constitute as salary so SIP contributions can continue to be deducted from these payments.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to support self-employed wedding photographers who work from home and have not been eligible for covid-19 financial support since March 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is helping those that have been adversely affected by COVID-19 and has already provided over £13 billion of support. Those ineligible for the SEISS may still be eligible for other elements of the unprecedented financial support available. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants. All 11 million UK self-assessment taxpayers will also be able to benefit from the recently enhanced Time to Pay ‘self-service’ facility to establish a 12-month, interest-free payment arrangement for up to £30,000 of self-assessment debt.
Furthermore, the application deadline for four temporary coronavirus loan schemes – Bounce Back Loans, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans, Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loans (CBILS) and the Future Fund - has also been extended to 30 November. Up to half a million businesses which deferred their VAT bills will also be given more breathing space through the New Payment Scheme, which gives them the option to spread their payments over the financial year 2021-2022.