Asked by: Jake Richards (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to the public purse would be to not claim back child benefit from parents who have lost a child in the year after the upfront payment.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the hon member to the answer given on 24 January to UIN 25010 regarding estimated costs of not claiming back Child Benefit overpayments.
Asked by: Jake Richards (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what her Department's policy is on claiming back child benefit from parents who have lost a child in the year after the upfront payment.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the hon member to the answer given on 23 January to UIN 25009 regarding the policy on Child Benefit overpayments.
Asked by: Jake Richards (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the cost to her Department of not claiming back child benefit from parents who have lost a child in the year since the original payment.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The estimated cost of not claiming back Child Benefit payments from parents who have lost a child in the year since the payment was made is not readily available and could only be produced at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jake Richards (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what her Department's policy is on claiming back child benefit from parents who have lost a child in the year since the payment was made.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Entitlement to Child Benefit continues for eight weeks after the date of a child’s death. This recognises that the period following such a traumatic event is particularly difficult and avoids causing additional distress from the immediate removal of financial support. After this point, where a death of a child is not made known to HMRC, any overpayments of Child Benefit are ordinarily recoverable. However, HMRC has processes in place designed to limit overpayments in these circumstances. This includes using regular data from the registry of births marriages and deaths to sensitively contact customers where they have suffered the loss of a child. Similarly, where a customer informs DWP through their 'Tell Us Once Service', this information is passed to HMRC and used to end the Child Benefit claim.
Asked by: Jake Richards (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to increase economic productivity.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
Boosting productivity growth across the country is a key aim of this government’s growth mission. By reforming the economy and increasing productivity, we will drive up prosperity and living standards across the UK. Our Budget showed that this government has a robust, comprehensive strategy for boosting productivity, and we are taking the steps needed to make up for fourteen years of stagnant productivity growth, including introducing planning reforms, protecting record R&D funding and launching Skills England.
Asked by: Jake Richards (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how the money raised from the Immigration Skills Charge has been spent over the last five years.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Immigration Skills Charge is administered by the Home Office and is classified as Trust Statement income. Government departments are required to surrender all Trust Statement income to the Consolidated Fund (CF).
Receipts surrendered to the CF are not ring-fenced for any specific area of government spending but will be used towards general government expenditure, which includes funding for departments’ budgetary Supply Estimates approved by Parliament.