Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the next Spending Review will be (a) launched and (b) completed.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The next multi-year Spending Review will be carried out in 2020. The dates will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding his Department has allocated to the marriage allowance; and how many (a) married couples and (b) couples in civil partnerships received that allowance in each year since it was introduced.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
There is no specific funding allocated to this relief, and therefore no under-spend. Anyone who is eligible for the Marriage Allowance (MA) will receive it if they apply.
Estimates of the number of couples who have benefitted from MA are being updated following the end of 2018-19 tax year.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value was of the under-spend in the marriage allowance budget in each year since it was introduced.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
There is no specific funding allocated to this relief, and therefore no under-spend. Anyone who is eligible for the Marriage Allowance (MA) will receive it if they apply.
Estimates of the number of couples who have benefitted from MA are being updated following the end of 2018-19 tax year.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the level of funding allocated to the married couples allowance in each year up to 2025.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
There is no specific funding allocated to this relief, anyone who is eligible for Married Couples Allowance will receive it if they apply.
HMRC publishes the estimated cost of the Married Couples Allowance (MCA) for the years up to the current tax year in their “Estimated costs of principal tax reliefs” publication, available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs
The estimated cost of the MCA is:
£m | |||||
2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
345 | 330 | 290 | 240 | 195 | 165 |
Estimated costs beyond 2018-19 have been modelled based on projections using economic assumptions consistent with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s October 2018 Economic and Fiscal Outlook. These extend as far as the tax year 2023-24, so this is the final year for which figures are provided.
£m | ||||
2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
130 | 105 | 85 | 65 | 55 |
All estimates are based on the 2015-16 Survey of Personal Incomes projected using economic assumptions consistent with the OBR’s October 2018 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the cost of administering the tax-free childcare scheme.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
HMRC administer Tax-Free Childcare and 30 hours free childcare through the childcare service. The average annual operating cost for the childcare service over the five years to 2021/22 is estimated as £34.1m.
Details on Tax-Free Childcare usage up to December 2018 can be found in the official statistics publication (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-december-2018).
Details on 30 hours free childcare usage is published by the Department for Education (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/30-hours-free-childcare-eligibility-codes-issued-and-validated)
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many families have a tax-free childcare account; and what proportion of those families have received financial assistance through the tax-free childcare scheme.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The forecasts for spending on Tax-Free Childcare can be found in table 4.17 of the OBR’s Economic & Fiscal Outlook (https://cdn.obr.uk/March-2019_EFO_Web-Accessible.pdf) and are contained in table 1 below, along with forecasts of the number of families and the proportion of eligible families using Tax-Free Childcare.
Table 1
| Outturn | Forecast | |||||
2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | |
TFC Spending | £32m | £0.1bn | £0.3bn | £0.4bn | £0.6bn | £0.8bn | £1.0bn |
Number of Families Using TFC (at year end) | 47,000 | 0.1m | 0.3m | 0.4m | 0.5m | 0.6m | 0.8m |
Proportion of Eligible Families Using TFC | 3% | 8% | 16% | 24% | 32% | 41% | 49% |
Details on Tax-Free Childcare usage up to December 2018 can be found in the official statistics publication (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-december-2018).
The statistics show that 90,800 families used Tax-Free Childcare in December 2018. This represents around 5.8 per cent of eligible families.
The statistics also show that 256,900 families had an open Tax-Free Childcare account in December 2018, and that 35 per cent of these had been used during the month.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of families who will access tax-free childcare in each year up to 2025.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The forecasts for spending on Tax-Free Childcare can be found in table 4.17 of the OBR’s Economic & Fiscal Outlook (https://cdn.obr.uk/March-2019_EFO_Web-Accessible.pdf) and are contained in table 1 below, along with forecasts of the number of families and the proportion of eligible families using Tax-Free Childcare.
Table 1
| Outturn | Forecast | |||||
2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | |
TFC Spending | £32m | £0.1bn | £0.3bn | £0.4bn | £0.6bn | £0.8bn | £1.0bn |
Number of Families Using TFC (at year end) | 47,000 | 0.1m | 0.3m | 0.4m | 0.5m | 0.6m | 0.8m |
Proportion of Eligible Families Using TFC | 3% | 8% | 16% | 24% | 32% | 41% | 49% |
Details on Tax-Free Childcare usage up to December 2018 can be found in the official statistics publication (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-december-2018).
The statistics show that 90,800 families used Tax-Free Childcare in December 2018. This represents around 5.8 per cent of eligible families.
The statistics also show that 256,900 families had an open Tax-Free Childcare account in December 2018, and that 35 per cent of these had been used during the month.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of families estimated to be eligible for tax-free childcare have received such childcare in each year since its introduction.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The forecasts for spending on Tax-Free Childcare can be found in table 4.17 of the OBR’s Economic & Fiscal Outlook (https://cdn.obr.uk/March-2019_EFO_Web-Accessible.pdf) and are contained in table 1 below, along with forecasts of the number of families and the proportion of eligible families using Tax-Free Childcare.
Table 1
| Outturn | Forecast | |||||
2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | |
TFC Spending | £32m | £0.1bn | £0.3bn | £0.4bn | £0.6bn | £0.8bn | £1.0bn |
Number of Families Using TFC (at year end) | 47,000 | 0.1m | 0.3m | 0.4m | 0.5m | 0.6m | 0.8m |
Proportion of Eligible Families Using TFC | 3% | 8% | 16% | 24% | 32% | 41% | 49% |
Details on Tax-Free Childcare usage up to December 2018 can be found in the official statistics publication (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-december-2018).
The statistics show that 90,800 families used Tax-Free Childcare in December 2018. This represents around 5.8 per cent of eligible families.
The statistics also show that 256,900 families had an open Tax-Free Childcare account in December 2018, and that 35 per cent of these had been used during the month.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what forecast the Office of Budget responsibility has made for spending on tax-free childcare in each year since its introduction and until 2025.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The forecasts for spending on Tax-Free Childcare can be found in table 4.17 of the OBR’s Economic & Fiscal Outlook (https://cdn.obr.uk/March-2019_EFO_Web-Accessible.pdf) and are contained in table 1 below, along with forecasts of the number of families and the proportion of eligible families using Tax-Free Childcare.
Table 1
| Outturn | Forecast | |||||
2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | |
TFC Spending | £32m | £0.1bn | £0.3bn | £0.4bn | £0.6bn | £0.8bn | £1.0bn |
Number of Families Using TFC (at year end) | 47,000 | 0.1m | 0.3m | 0.4m | 0.5m | 0.6m | 0.8m |
Proportion of Eligible Families Using TFC | 3% | 8% | 16% | 24% | 32% | 41% | 49% |
Details on Tax-Free Childcare usage up to December 2018 can be found in the official statistics publication (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-december-2018).
The statistics show that 90,800 families used Tax-Free Childcare in December 2018. This represents around 5.8 per cent of eligible families.
The statistics also show that 256,900 families had an open Tax-Free Childcare account in December 2018, and that 35 per cent of these had been used during the month.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the marriage tax allowance has cost the public purse; how many married couples have been eligible for it; and how many and what proportion of eligible married couples have benefitted from it in each year since it was introduced.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
HMRC publishes the estimated cost of tax reliefs annually and the latest estimate can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs
HMRC’s projection of the cost of the Marriage Allowance include the anticipated full take up of the allowance after all retrospective claims have been made, as the allowance can be claimed retrospectively for up to four years:
£ million | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Marriage Allowance | 680 | 735 | 835 |
. Around 4.2 million couples are estimated to be eligible to claim the marriage allowance. The table below shows the approximate proportion of those who are eligible and are estimated to have made a claim for marriage allowance.
% | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Marriage Allowance | 16 | 44 | 67 |