Asked by: Fay Jones (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will review the level of the mileage allowance relief granted to care workers.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) rates aim to reflect running costs including fuel, servicing and depreciation.
Most domiciliary care staff are employed by private providers who decide their mileage reimbursement rate. Employers, including those of care staff, are not required to use AMAPs. Instead, they can agree to reimburse the actual cost incurred, where individuals can provide evidence of the expenditure, without an Income Tax or National Insurance charge arising.
If an employee is paid less than the approved amount, they are entitled to claim tax relief (Mileage Allowance Relief) on the shortfall. The maximum MAR claim is set to the same level as the AMAP rates.
As with all taxes and allowances, the Government keeps AMAP rates under review and any changes are considered by the Chancellor.
Asked by: Fay Jones (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to support rural residents with the expected increase in cost of living.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Government is providing support worth over £20 billion across this financial year and next that will help families with the cost of living. This includes cutting the Universal Credit taper rate and increasing work allowances to make sure work pays, freezing alcohol and fuel duties to keep costs down, and the £9.1 billion package announced in February 2022 to help households with rising energy bills.
The Government’s Plan for Jobs is also helping people into work and giving them the skills they need to progress – the best approach to managing the cost of living in the long term. We are building on the success of the Plan for Jobs, investing more than £6 billion on labour market support over three years. In addition to this, we are increasing the National Living Wage (NLW) by 6.6% to £9.50 in April 2022 for those aged 23 and over, which will mean a full-time worker on the NLW will see an increase in their earnings of over £1,000 a year.
Asked by: Fay Jones (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of deferring the VAT payments due by 31 March 2021 for businesses worst affected by the covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Approximately 600,000 payments were deferred to the value of £34 billion through the VAT payments deferral scheme, which ended on 30 June 2020. As part of the Winter Economy Plan, the Government announced further support for those with deferred VAT. Instead of paying the full deferred VAT outstanding by 31 March 2021, businesses can spread what they owe over up to 11 smaller monthly payments. More information is available at www.gov.uk/hmrc/vat-deferral.
Asked by: Fay Jones (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the (a) Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and (b) Self Employment Income Support Scheme beyond the end of April 2021.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has provided a comprehensive economic response that is one of the most generous globally, including very substantial steps to protect jobs. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has helped to pay the wages of people in 9.9 million jobs across the country, providing £46.4bn worth of support as of 13 December. The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) has received claims from 2.7 million self-employed workers, amounting to £13.7bn as of 13 December.
The Government will set out the next phase of the plan to tackle the virus and support jobs at Budget 2021.
Asked by: Fay Jones (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing beer duty.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Alcohol duties are kept under review and the merits of a change to beer duty is considered at each fiscal event. Announcements about any changes to beer duty will be made in the usual way at the next Budget.
Asked by: Fay Jones (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason (a) income from furnished holiday lets is not included in calculations for support under the Self Employed Income Support Scheme and (b) an individual must receive more than half of their income from self-employment in order to be eligible for support from that scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The self-employed are very diverse and have a wide mix of turnover and profits, with monthly and annual variations even in normal times, and in some cases with substantial alternative forms of income too. The design of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), including the eligibility requirement that an individual’s trading profits must be no more than £50,000 and at least equal to their non-trading income, means it is targeted at those who need it the most, and who are most reliant on their self-employment income
Income from furnished holiday lets is classified as non-trading income and therefore it is not considered as part of a self-employed individual’s trading profits.
Beyond this, the SEISS continues to be just one element of a comprehensive package of support for the self-employed. The Universal Credit standard allowance has been temporarily increased for 2020-21 and the Minimum Income Floor relaxed for the duration of the crisis, so that where self-employed claimants' earnings have fallen significantly, their Universal Credit award will have increased to reflect their lower earnings. In addition to this, they may also have access to other elements of the package, including Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, self-isolation support payments and other business support grants.
Asked by: Fay Jones (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment he has made of the effect of VAT rates from January 2021 on the affordability of reusable menstrual underwear and other female hygiene products.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The zero rate for women’s sanitary products announced in the March 2020 Budget will apply from 1 January 2021 to those products which are currently subject to the reduced rate of 5 per cent. This covers the supply of any sanitary protection product that is designed and marketed solely for the absorption or collection of menstrual flow or lochia, whether disposable or reusable. The relief excludes dual purpose period and incontinence products, items of clothing such as reusable menstrual underwear, or purely incontinence products.
The new zero rate will ensure that every woman needing sanitary protection during their monthly cycle will, from the start of January and for the first time, have access to a variety of zero rated sanitary protection products on which they had previously paid a 5 per cent rate of VAT.
Asked by: Fay Jones (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when his Department devised its definition of women’s sanitary products qualifying for the reduced rate of VAT from January 2021; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including reusable menstrual underwear within that definition.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The zero rate for women’s sanitary products announced in the March 2020 Budget will apply from 1 January 2021 to those products which are currently subject to the reduced rate of 5 per cent. This covers the supply of any sanitary protection product that is designed and marketed solely for the absorption or collection of menstrual flow or lochia, whether disposable or reusable. The relief excludes dual purpose period and incontinence products, items of clothing such as reusable menstrual underwear, or purely incontinence products.
The new zero rate will ensure that every woman needing sanitary protection during their monthly cycle will, from the start of January and for the first time, have access to a variety of zero rated sanitary protection products on which they had previously paid a 5 per cent rate of VAT.