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 married couple's allowance in each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
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 |
In 2018-19 there are estimated to be around 270,000 claimants of MCA. HMRC does not hold estimates of the total number of married couples. Reliable estimates of the numbers in receipt of MCA are not available at local authority or constituency level due to insufficient sample size.
The published 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, how many and what proportion of married couples are (a) eligible for and (b) in receipt of the married couples tax allowance in each (i) local authority and (ii) parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
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 |
In 2018-19 there are estimated to be around 270,000 claimants of MCA. HMRC does not hold estimates of the total number of married couples. Reliable estimates of the numbers in receipt of MCA are not available at local authority or constituency level due to insufficient sample size.
The published 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 data his Department holds on the ages of people who claim married couple's allowance.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Married Couple’s Allowance (MCA) is available for couples where at least one of the partners was born before 6th April 1935. For the current tax year, at least one of the partners would have to have been at least 83 years old as of 6th April 2018.
For 2018-19, the average age of claimants of MCA is around 87 years old.
This estimate is 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 Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, (a) how much his Department has allocated to spend on and (b) what recent estimate his Department has made of its total spending on tax-free childcare for the financial year 2018-19.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 19 March 2018 (PQ 133037).
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department has spent on tax-free childcare in the financial year 2018-19 to date.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 19 March 2018 (PQ 133037).
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money from the public purse was spent on tax-free childcare in 2017-18.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 19 March 2018 (PQ 133037).
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of how much the Government will spend on tax free childcare in each of the next five years.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The information requested is available at http://obr.uk/efo/economic-fiscal-outlook-november-2017/
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average monthly amount is that (a) parents and (b) the Government has paid into tax free childcare accounts since those account were introduced.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
There are currently 1,890 live Tax-Free Childcare accounts for disabled children.
The average amount paid into Tax-Free Childcare accounts each month by parents is £7,195,428, and by the government is £1,823,442.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many families with disabled children have registered for a tax free childcare account.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
There are currently 1,890 live Tax-Free Childcare accounts for disabled children.
The average amount paid into Tax-Free Childcare accounts each month by parents is £7,195,428, and by the government is £1,823,442.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) parents and (b) families (i) have registered for and (ii) are receiving payments through the tax free childcare scheme.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
More than 170,000 parents have a Tax-Free Childcare account. Over 45,000 parents have made a payment from their account. Many of the parents with a Tax-Free Childcare account are accessing 30 hours free childcare, meaning they have not yet needed to use Tax-Free Childcare. The childcare service is being gradually rolled out to parents of older children and therefore we expect usage to increase over time.
The average annual operating cost for the childcare service (through which parents access 30 hours free childcare and/or Tax-Free Childcare) over the five years to 2021/22 is estimated as £35.5m. The average annual operating cost for the Childcare Choices site is £8,800.
All remaining parents will be able to access Tax-Free Childcare by 14 February. When fully rolled out we estimate that 1.2 million families would be better off under Tax-Free Childcare.