Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mel Stride and Ranil Jayawardena

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ranil Jayawardena (North East Hampshire) (Con)]

1. If he will make it his policy to increase the marriage allowance.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mel Stride)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on all the hard work that he has put in to promote marriage and civil partnerships, and all the benefits thereof to families and wider society. I assure him that the design of the marriage allowance is such that it will indeed continue to rise as we raise the personal allowance, as we did in the recent Budget.

[Mr Jayawardena]

Given the £48 billion of costs to the Exchequer from family breakdown, will my hon. Friend meet me and a delegation to discuss how we can further strengthen marriage through the tax system and help people to keep more of what they earn?

[Mel Stride]

My hon. Friend is pushing in a direction in which we have already travelled. In the last Budget, we made provision for ensuring that those who have been married or in a civil partnership and have a deceased partner are able to claim the marriage allowance and backdate that claim some four years. I will, of course, be happy to meet him and his colleagues to discuss this matter further.