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Written Question
National Insurance: Foster Care
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 February 2024 to Question 15683 on National Insurance: Foster Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of topping-up the National Insurance contributions of foster carers who were unable to work due to the rules that were in place before 2003.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Between 2003 and 2010, foster carers could claim Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) to protect their National Insurance record. Foster carers who did not claim HRP at the time can make a retrospective claim now – guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp

There are no plans to extend this period to allow foster carers to claim HRP before 6 April 2003.

For periods prior to 2003, foster carers could have paid voluntary NICs to protect their National Insurance (NI) record subject to the normal time limits. Time limits for voluntary NICs are an important feature of the NI system, which operates on a pay as you go basis; the National Insurance contributions (NICs) paid now are used to fund today’s contributory benefits.

There are no plans to allow foster carers to pay voluntary NICs for periods before 2003 to top up their NI records, outside of the existing rules for voluntary NICs. This maintains fairness for other individuals who have paid voluntary NICs within the required time limits.

At Spring Budget 2023, the government increased the amount of income tax relief available to foster carers and shared lives carers. The threshold of income at which qualifying carers begin paying tax on care income was increased to £18,140 per year plus £375 to £450 per person cared for per week for 2023-24 (the weekly amount range is based on age of the child or adult under care). Both the threshold and weekly amounts will then be index-linked from 2024-25 onwards, representing a tax cut worth approximately £450 per year on average


Written Question
Tax Avoidance
Friday 1st March 2024

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of publishing the written responses to its consultation entitled Tackling disguised remuneration, which closed on 5 October 2016.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government published a technical note and summary of responses to the Tackling Disguised Remuneration consultation on 5 December 2016: Tackling disguised remuneration. Technical note and summary of responses

The Government does not routinely publish individual consultation responses.


Written Question
National Insurance: Foster Care
Thursday 29th February 2024

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to top up national insurance contributions for individuals who received foster care allowances but were not allowed to work while fostering.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Foster carers can claim National Insurance (NI) credits known as ‘Credits for Parents and Carers’ (CPC) which count towards their State Pension. If a foster carer is unable to work due to their caring responsibilities, claiming CPC will prevent any gaps in their NI record as a result for State Pension purposes.

CPC can be claimed for periods from 6 April 2010 onwards and replaced Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) which foster carers can claim for periods between 2003 – 2010.


Written Question
Tax Avoidance: Bankruptcy
Monday 26th February 2024

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the compatibility of the issuing of section 684 notices by HMRC with the recommendations of the independent loan charge review led by Sir Amyas Morse.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Loan Charge is targeted at contrived tax avoidance schemes that sought to avoid Income Tax and National Insurance contributions by paying users their income in the form of loans.

In his independent review, Lord Morse recommended that the Loan Charge no longer apply to loans made before 9 December 2010. However, Lord Morse said “HMRC should continue being able to settle and investigate cases prior to this point under their normal powers where they have appropriate grounds, and a legal basis, to do so”. The government accepted this recommendation. In line with this recommendation, HMRC is still seeking to recover the tax due where it had taken the necessary steps in the past to give it the legal basis to do so.

In May 2022, the Court of Appeal said that HMRC could consider using certain provisions in the PAYE system (referred to as ‘section 684(7A)(b)’) to collect tax directly from the individual who received income through a DR scheme. HMRC using these provisions where appropriate is in line with Lord Morse’s recommendation.


Written Question
Catering and Take-away Food: VAT
Thursday 1st February 2024

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing VAT on (a) catering and (b) takeaway hot food.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government currently has no plans to change the VAT treatment of either catering or takeaway hot food.

Supplies in the course of catering include hot takeaway food for consumption off premises and food that is for consumption on the premises on which it is supplied (‘eat in’). These supplies of food are taxable at 20 per cent, the standard rate of VAT.

VAT has been designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Going further would impose additional pressure on the public finances to which VAT makes a significant contribution.


Written Question
Financial Ombudsman Service
Wednesday 10th January 2024

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had discussions with the Financial Ombudsman Service on the threshold for exceptional circumstances when considering cases after the six month time limit.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Financial Ombudsman Services (FOS) is an independent public body set up by Parliament to resolve complaints between financial services firms and their customers. The rules on how the FOS should handle complaints, including time limits, are determined by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and set out in the FCA Handbook.

The FCA rules state that the FOS cannot consider a complaint if the complainant refers it to the FOS more than six months after the complainant has received a final response letter from the firm who is subject to the complaint, unless the failure to raise a complaint within the time limit was a result of exceptional circumstances. Decisions on whether a particular situation constitutes exceptional circumstances are made by the FOS on a case-by-case basis, but may include where a period of serious ill health has prevented a complaint from being made. The FOS provides a number of case studies on its website, illustrating circumstances in which a consumer's failure to complain within the six month time limit was (or was not) considered to be as a result of exceptional circumstances. This can be found at the following address: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/time-limits


Written Question
Individual Savings Accounts: Fines
Wednesday 20th December 2023

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of penalties imposed for unauthorised withdrawals from lifetime ISAs.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government has no current plans to remove or reduce the LISA withdrawal charge.

However, the Government keeps all aspects of the savings tax regime under review, and any changes would be announced at a fiscal event.


Written Question
Motor Vehicles: Insurance
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had discussions with the Competition and Markets Authority on helping ensure that rises in car insurance premiums do not disproportionately impact individuals with protected characteristics.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

Treasury ministers and officials have regular engagement with independent regulators, including the Competition and Markets Authority, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). As was the case with previous administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such meetings.

Insurers make commercial decisions about the terms on which they will offer cover following an assessment of the relevant risks. However, insurers must comply with relevant legislation and regulatory rules when pricing their products.

Under the Equality Act 2010 insurers are, with limited exceptions, prohibited from discriminating against consumers with protected characteristics. Enforcement powers under the Equality Act 2010 are the sole reserve of the EHRC. However, it is likely that a breach of the Equality Act will also be a breach of the FCA’s rules.

The FCA have also introduced new Consumer Duty rules, from 31 July 2023, to ensure firms are providing products that offer fair value (i.e. that the price a consumer pays for a product or service is reasonable compared to the overall benefits they can expect to receive).

The FCA can and does act in appropriate cases where firms are breaching its rules.


Written Question
Disguised Remuneration Loan Charge Review
Wednesday 25th October 2023

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to issue a Command Paper in relation to the Disguised remuneration: independent loan charge review.

Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

The loan charge was independently reviewed by Lord Amyas Morse in 2019, who assessed the impact of the policy on affected taxpayers. The Government accepted all but one of the Review’s 20 recommendations.

To bring the Review’s publication to the attention of Parliament, a Written Statement was made on the day (20 December 2019: UIN HCWS14). The Statement is available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2019-12-20/hcws14.

There are no plans to issue a command paper.


Written Question
Insurance: Misrepresentation
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has had discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority on the level of fees charged by companies for supporting people with claims relating to payment protection insurance.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Treasury ministers and officials have regular engagement with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such meetings.

Claims Management Companies supporting any remaining payment protection insurance (PPI) claims remain subject to a 20 per cent fee cap, as set in the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018. Further information on this PPI fee cap can be found in the FCA handbook, Section 5.1 of the Claims Management: Conduct of Business sourcebook.