Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of employees that are eligible for furlough that have been made unemployed.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has so far protected over 7.5 million workers and almost 1 million businesses. While there is no obligation for employers to take up the scheme, the Government encourages all firms affected by coronavirus to treat their employees fairly and carefully.
The Government is also supporting people on low incomes who may need to rely on the welfare system through a significant package of temporary measures. These include a £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance and Working Tax Credit basic element, and a nearly £1bn increase in support for renters through increases to the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants.?These changes will benefit all new and existing claimants. Anyone can check their eligibility and apply for Universal Credit by visiting?https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether respite and day carers for children and adults that are unable to work as a result of the covid-19 outbreak are eligible for financial support from the Government.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Individuals who are unable to work as a result of COVID-19 may have access to support through either the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) or the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
To be eligible for the CJRS, employees must have been on their employer’s PAYE payroll on or before 19 March 2020 and HMRC must have received an RTI submission notifying payment in respect of that employee on or before 19 March 2020. Eligible employees can be on any type of employment contract, including full-time, part-time, agency, fixed-term, flexible or zero hour contracts.
The SEISS will allow eligible individuals to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of their average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering three months, and capped at £7,500 in total. Self-employed individuals, including members of partnerships, are eligible if they have submitted their Income Tax Self-Assessment tax return for the tax year 2018-19, continued to trade, and have been adversely affected by COVID-19. To qualify, their self-employed trading profits must be less than £50,000, with more than half of their income deriving from self-employment. Some 95% of people who receive the majority of their income from self-employment could benefit from this scheme, based on 2017-18 data.
Those not eligible for these schemes may have access to other support Government is providing, including a package of temporary welfare measures and up to three months’ mortgage payment holidays for those in difficulty with mortgage payments.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff in his Department reported experiencing bullying or harassment at work in the most recent Civil Service People Survey.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Bullying and harassment has no place in any workplace, including the Civil Service.
In the most recent People Survey, 11% of respondents, on average across the Civil Service, told us that they'd experienced bullying or harassment at work in the 12 months preceding the survey.
Whilst this figure has remained stable since 2016, we recognise that certain groups of staff are more like to say they have experienced this type of unacceptable behaviour than others. This includes staff members with long-term limiting conditions who, in the vast majority of departments and agencies, were more likely to say they'd been bullied or harassed in the last 12 months than staff members with no long-term limiting conditions.
We are strengthening the routes for staff to report bullying and harassment to ensure that all staff are fully supported throughout the process, and to ensure cultures are positive and inclusive. HM Treasury has just published new Dispute Resolution and Discipline policies. The products have been designed to be more supportive and to promote a culture where people feel able to raise a concern, confident that they will be listened to and that their concerns will be taken seriously.
The high level People Survey results for each organisation, including reported rates of bullying and harassment, were published last December on gov.uk.
Each spring the Cabinet Office conducts and publishes a range of further analysis on the People Survey responses, including the results by gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and health status. Similar analysis will be conducted again this year and made available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 5.16 of Budget 2018, what proportion of the £410 million for adult and children social care is for children's social care.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Where necessary, local authorities should use the funding to ensure adult social care pressures don’t create additional pressure on the NHS, and councils can also use it to improve their offer for older people, people with disabilities, and children.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 5.16 of Budget 2018, how the £410 million for adult and children social care will be distributed among local councils.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Details of the distributional allocation of the funding will be provided by the Ministry for Housing, Communities, and Local Government in due course.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 5.17 of Budget 2018, what proportion of the £55 million of the Disabled Facilities Grant will be allocated to programmes targeted at children.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The Disabled Facilities Grant funds individual aids and adaptations to a person’s home and is available to all disabled children, and disabled adults subject to a means test. Local authority decisions on grant awards will determine how the Grant is allocated between children and adults.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on NHS funding.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
I refer the hon. Member to the Answer I gave earlier to Question no. 3 – PQ UIN 906780
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to publish the data on exceptions to the two-child tax credit limit.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The policy has only been operation since April 2017. The data will be published once there are sufficient cases to enable robust analysis and the statistics have been quality assured.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many care leavers are in receipt of working tax credit.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The information requested is not held by HMRC
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff in his Department reported experiencing bullying or harassment at work in the most recent Civil Service People Survey.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
8% of Treasury respondents declared that during the past 12 months they had personally experienced bullying or harassment at work.
The rules on confidentiality relating to the Civil Service People Survey (CSPS) do not allow for the breakdown of the results to the extent where the anonymity may be compromised. Therefore the Treasury does not hold information on the proportion of disabled staff who reported bullying or harassment at work in the 2014 Civil Service People Survey.
6% of Treasury respondents declaring that they did not have a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability reported that they had personally experienced bullying or harassment at work in the past 12 months.