Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Tax-Free Childcare statistics, published March 2019, for what reasons 60 per cent of open accounts are not being used.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
Due to the way Tax-Free Childcare is linked to 30 hours free childcare, a large number of Tax-Free Childcare accounts for 3 and 4 years olds are opened but not used to pay a childcare provider. This happens because a child who has a 30 hours account opened, will automatically have a Tax-Free Childcare account opened as well, if their parents are eligible. The reason for this feature of the service is to ensure a smooth customer journey for families signing up for 30 hours free childcare, so that they have a Tax-Free Childcare account ready for use when their child is no longer eligible for 30 hours free childcare.
Additionally, when a Tax-Free Childcare account is opened for a child, of any age, accounts will be opened for their siblings if their details are also entered during the application.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost is to the public purse of tax free childcare per hour.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) provides support to parents of 20% of their childcare costs, up to a cap of £2000 per child per year.
The official statistics publication ‘Tax-Free Childcare Statistics’ (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-june-2019) contains a monthly breakdown of Government costs.
The Government does not collect data on the number of hours of childcare being subsidised by TFC. It is therefore not possible to calculate the cost to the Government of TFC per hour of childcare subsidised.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the revenue lost to the public purse as a result of fraudulent tax free childcare claims in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
HMRC’s compliance activity for Tax-Free Childcare – which involves targeted risk campaigns plus additional exercises looking at the particulars of randomly selected parents - suggests non-compliance rates, and thus revenue losses to the public purse, continue to remain negligible.
Whilst no formal estimates have been as yet been produced of actual losses, all of HMRC’s compliance findings to date reveal no real evidence of deliberate fraud, but what mistakes have been detected relate instead to parent error.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment has been made of the effect of the closure of Childcare Vouchers to new entrants on working families; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of re-opening that scheme.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) was rolled out throughout 2017 and 2018 to replace childcare vouchers. TFC is better targeted than childcare vouchers, as it broadens access to childcare to all families who meet the eligibility criteria, whether they are an employee or self-employed and regardless of who their employer is. It is also fairer, because support is paid per child rather than per parent, so lone parent households get the same support as those with more than one parent.
The Government has no plans to re-open the childcare vouchers scheme in the future.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Tax-Free Childcare statistics, published March 2019, for what reasons the proportion of families in Northern Ireland using tax-free childcare remained unchanged between 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The proportion of used TFC accounts which are in Northern Ireland remained unchanged between 2017/18 and 2018/19 as the increase in the number of used accounts in Northern Ireland was proportional to the increase in the number of used accounts across the United Kingdom.
As shown in Table 5 of the most recent Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) Statistics release (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-june-2019) the number of used TFC accounts in Northern Ireland increased by 1,700 between 2017/18 and 2018/19.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of children using tax free childcare use a statutory childcare setting.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
HM Revenue & Customs do not collect information on whether childcare is provided in a private or statutory setting for the purposes of delivering Tax-Free Childcare.Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of children using tax free childcare use a private childcare setting.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
HM Revenue & Customs do not collect information on whether childcare is provided in a private or statutory setting for the purposes of delivering Tax-Free Childcare.Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to encourage more working parents (a) in general and (b) who are women to get back into work.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The government supports women and parents to return to work, including through: spending almost £6 billion on childcare support in 2019/20 – more than ever before, providing the right to request flexible working and a system of shared parental leave, investing in opportunities and support for people returning to work after time out for caring and having an ambition to increase female entrepreneurship by half by 2030.
The female employment rate is at a record high of 72.1% and 1.9m more women are in work since 2010. The employment rate for parents is 83.2%, also a record high.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he has taken to encourage (a) working parents and (b) working mothers to start their own business.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Government is committed to supporting entrepreneurs and removing barriers for would-be entrepreneurs. To support this aim, the Government has extended the Start-up Loans Programme until 2021 which will provide up to 10,000 loans to potential entrepreneurs to help them start a business.
The parental pay and leave system gives working parents the choice and flexibility they need to balance work with the demands of starting and growing a family.
For mothers in particular, in response to the Alison Rose Review on female entrepreneurship, the Government has announced its ambition to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030, equivalent to nearly 600,000 additional female entrepreneurs. To support this, we have launched the Investing in Women Code which has 18 signatories from the financial services sector who are committed to improving female entrepreneurs’ access to tools, resources and finance.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many parents are eligible for tax free childcare in Scotland.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The number of families eligible for Tax-free childcare who have qualifying childcare costs in 2019/20 in England, Scotland and Wales can be found in the table below.
Country | Number of Eligible Families with Qualifying Childcare (000’s) |
England | 1,120 |
Scotland | 110 |
Wales | 70 |