Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people were estimated to be paid employees according to HMRC's PAYE and RTI data in (a) England, (b) the North West, (c) Oldham local authority and (d) Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency in each month from April 2019 to May 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The table below sets out the quarterly numbers for paid employees in England and the North West, from April 2019 to March 2020, from HMRC PAYE RTI data.
| April 2019 - June 2019 | July 2019 - September 2019 | October 2019 - December 2019 | January 2020 - March 2020 |
England | 25,578,000 | 25,873,000 | 25,800,000 | 25,737,000 |
North West | 3,272,000 | 3,306,000 | 3,305,000 | 3,291,000 |
Paid Employees in England and the North West
Figures rounded to the nearest thousand
It is not possible for HMRC to provide answers to the other aspects of this question due to the time taken to calculate these figures.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax credit recipients have been naturally migrated onto universal credit since March 2016.
Answered by David Gauke
Since March 2016, 52,660 tax credits recipients have naturally migrated onto Universal Credit.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many full-time equivalent staff of HM Revenue and Customs worked on the design and implementation of universal credit in each year since its introduction.
Answered by Jane Ellison
HM Revenue and Customs has employed the following full-time equivalents to support the design and implementation of Universal Credit:
Period | Average full-time equivalents |
2011/2012 (September to March) | 37 |
2012/13 | 132 |
2013/2014 | 132 |
2014/15 | 101 |
2015/16 | 98 |
2016/17 (April to October) | 85 |
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the monthly average waiting time was related to calls to HM Revenue and Customs on universal credit in each year since its introduction.
Answered by Jane Ellison
HM Revenue and Customs does not hold this information. The Department for Work and Pensions administers Universal Credit.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that disabled people are not disproportionately affected by reductions in government expenditure.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The Government has protected the value of disability benefits, exempting these payments from the uprating freeze and exempting those in receipt of them from the benefit cap.
Disability spending will be higher in every year to 2020 relative to both 2010 and to today.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.59 of the Summer Budget 2015, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of restricting finance cost relief for landlords on the ability of private individuals who operate buy-to-let businesses with large private buy-to-let companies.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
An individual’s property income is subject to a separate set of tax rules to those of a private company.
Once the changes are fully in place by 2020-21, all individuals will get finance cost relief at the basic rate of income tax, 20%. Incorporated businesses will continue to receive relief at the corporate tax rate which is currently 20% and due to fall to 17% in 2020.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of calls to the HM Revenue and Customs self assessment helpline were abandoned without answer in each of the last three years; and what the median waiting time was for such abandoned calls.
Answered by David Gauke
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs publishes regular performance reports, which are available on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with HM Revenue and Customs officials on improving waiting times for members of the public calling that Department's self-assessment helpline.
Answered by David Gauke
Ministers regularly meet with officials as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
HM Revenue and Customs has allocated £45 million, supporting the recruitment of an additional 3,000 customer service staff to answer calls and deal with customer correspondence.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many calls to the HM Revenue and Customs self-assessment helpline were (a) abandoned by callers and (b) answered after a period of (i) 15, (ii) 30 and (iii) 45 minutes in the latest year for which data are available.
Answered by David Gauke
In December 2014, HMRC introduced a new telephony system and the data is not held in the format requested.
HMRC publish their performance data on a quarterly basis on Gov.UK.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average time taken was for HM Revenue and Customs to send out self assessment tax forms and online assessment password details in the last 12 months.
Answered by David Gauke
Information on registering for a self-assessment account is set out at www.gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment/overview.