Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has commissioned research on projected levels of inequality and economic growth since the date of the EU referendum.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility is tasked with creating the forecasts for economic growth on which the government sets fiscal policy. These are published in the ‘Economic and fiscal outlook’, most recently at the Spring Budget 2017. At Spring Budget 2017, the OBR revised up growth in 2017 to 2.0%.
There are no official projections of inequality. The latest data from the ONS show that inequality reached a 30-yr low last year.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the relative economic growth of the UK compared to that of Scotland in the first quarter of 2017.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Estimated growth of Gross Domestic Product in Scotland for the first quarter of 2017 is published by the Scottish Government here:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/PubGDP/GDP2017Q1
Estimated growth of Gross Domestic Product for the whole UK for the first quarter of 2017 is published by the Office for National Statistics here:
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the recent rise in the consumer price index on the level of household disposable income.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government is taking action to support incomes. This includes increasing the National Living Wage, raising the personal allowance and freezing fuel duty.
Following strong gains in recent years, higher inflation is expected to weigh on Real Household Disposable Income (RHDI) per head in 2017. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecast growth in subsequent years, with the level of RHDI per head rising 2.0% above its 2016 level by 2021.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has commissioned research on projected levels of inequality and economic growth.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is tasked with creating the forecasts for economic growth on which the government sets fiscal policy. These are published in the ‘Economic and fiscal outlook’, most recently at the Spring Budget 2017. At Spring Budget 2017, the OBR revised up growth in 2017 to 2.0%, but revised it slightly down thereafter.
There are no official projections of inequality. The latest data from the Office for National Statistics show that inequality reached a 30-yr low last year.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to prevent young people from falling into problem debt.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The government is committed to supporting all those affected by problem debt, and has a range of measures in place.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates the consumer credit market, and has introduced binding rules to strengthen consumer protection. They are based on the principle that money should only be lent to a consumer if they can afford to repay it; lenders must show forbearance if there is evidence of financial difficulty.
The FCA also capped the cost of payday loans. As part of a review of this price cap, the FCA will examine the high-cost credit market more broadly (such as rent-to-own), and consider whether further interventions are necessary to address the risk of consumer harm.
The Money Advice Service (MAS) coordinates the provision of free-to-client debt advice. Last financial year, MAS had a debt advice budget of £45m and funded 380,000 free-to-client debt advice sessions.
In the Queen’s Speech, the government announced the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill. This will legislate to restructure the financial guidance landscape and bring debt advice, money guidance, and pensions guidance together in a single body, and give consumers better access to the financial information they need. This Bill is currently going through Parliament.
This government's manifesto proposed a statutory breathing space that would give heavily indebted consumers a period of respite from enforcement action, and further interest and charges for a period of up to six weeks. Where appropriate, this would be followed by a statutory repayment plan to help them pay back their debts in a sustainable way. We will outline further information on how this policy could be implemented in due course.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what forecast he has mad of the change in the level of real-terms pay for the 2017-18 financial year.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s Spring Budget 2017 forecast was for nominal wage growth to increase in each year of the forecast. Inflation is expected to weigh on real earnings growth in the near term, before returning to 2.0% from 2019 onwards.
The Government is taking action to support incomes. The introduction of the National Living Wage (NLW) has benefitted around 1.7 million low paid workers and delivered the fastest wage growth for the lowest paid in 20 years. Further increases to the NLW in April this year have delivered an additional increase in earnings of over £500 a year for a full-time worker.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the recent rise in consumer price index on household savings.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Household financial positions are stronger than before the financial crisis: net financial wealth as a share of income is close to record highs; debt to income is below pre-crisis levels; and debt interest payments to income are at a record low.
The Government is continuing to take action to support household incomes. This includes increasing the National Living Wage, raising the personal allowance and freezing fuel duty. Additionally, the Government created the new Lifetime ISA in April 2017 that enables people to save up to £4,000 a year tax free, with a 25% government bonus.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times the employment status service tool on HM Revenue and Customs' website has been used since its public beta launch; and what proportion of that use has resulted in the client being informed that the (a) intermediaries legislation applies, (b) intermediaries legislation does not apply and (c) status cannot be determined.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The check employment status for tax service has been used over 450,000 times since the public beta launch in March 2017. It may be used to check if the intermediaries legislation applies, and for other employment status queries.
HM Revenue and Customs monitors total usage of the service but not the split between the different uses, so does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the public sector pay gap on the average levels of household pay in the last five years.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Public sector pay remains, on average, comparable to private sector pay. But, HM Treasury analysis, as well as independent studies, show public sector pay at a significant premium when pensions are taken into account. This analysis is not broken down by household.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the rise in the Consumer Price Index on consumer spending habits in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
In their March Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the Office for Budget Responsibility expected consumption growth to slow as the past depreciation of sterling put upwards pressure on inflation. The latest data on household consumption show that in Q1 2017 it was 2.6% higher than a year earlier.
The Government is taking action to support people with the cost of living. This includes increasing the National Living Wage, raising the personal allowance, and freezing fuel duty.