Draft Social Security (Contributions) (Rates, Limits and Thresholds Amendments and National Insurance Funds Payments) Regulations 2019 Draft Tax Credits and Guardian's Allowance Up-rating Regulations 2019

Robert Jenrick Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2019 General Committees

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Robert Jenrick)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Social Security (Contributions) (Rates, Limits and Thresholds Amendments and National Insurance Funds Payments) Regulations 2019.

[The Chair]

With this it will be convenient to consider the draft Tax Credits and Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Regulations 2019.

[Robert Jenrick]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Graham. I will now introduce the two sets of draft regulations and explain the changes that they will enforce. They both represent routine annual exercises necessary to ensure the collection of national insurance contributions and the resulting contribution to our public services. They will also increase certain benefits in line with inflation.

May I pause for a moment to address the point of order raised by the hon. Member for Glasgow South West? As he set out, there is a minor typo in paragraph 3.2 of the draft explanatory memorandum:

“The entire instrument applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland only”.

It should, of course, have mentioned Scotland. Paragraph 4.1 states:

“The extent of this instrument is the United Kingdom”,

which, of course, includes Scotland. This version of the explanatory memorandum is only a draft; we will publish a corrected version. I am grateful for the opportunity to make that clarification.

Turning to the Tax Credits and Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Regulations, as hon. Members know, the Government are committed to a welfare system that works, ensures that work always pays, and is fair to the taxpayer while maintaining protection for the most vulnerable in our society. In the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, we legislated to freeze the majority of working-age benefits—including child tax credit and working tax credit—for the four years up to 2020, which helped to put our welfare system on a sustainable long-term path. However, the disability elements of the child tax credit and the working tax credit were specifically exempted from the freeze. The guardian’s allowance was not affected either.

In introducing the draft regulations, we are legislating, as in previous years, to ensure that the guardian’s allowance and the disability elements of the child tax credit and working tax credit increase in line with the consumer prices index, which put inflation at 2.4% in the year to September 2018. The draft regulations will mean in practice that we will maintain the level of support for families with disabled children in receipt of child tax credit and disabled workers in receipt of working tax credit. The regulations will also sustain the level of support that we offer for children for whom one parent or more is absent or deceased. Increases to those rates are part of the Government’s wider commitment to supporting the most vulnerable people in our society.

The Social Security (Contributions) (Rates, Limits and Thresholds Amendments and National Insurance Funds Payments) Regulations will make changes to the rates, limits and thresholds for national insurance contributions and make provision for a Treasury grant to be paid into the national insurance fund, if required. The changes, if approved, will take effect from 6 April 2019.

I will outline the changes to employee and employer NICs, which are commonly referred to as class 1 NICs. On class 1 primary NICs for employees, the lower earnings limit will rise in line with inflation, from £116 a week to £118 a week, and the primary threshold will increase with inflation, from £162 a week to £166 a week. The upper earnings limit is aligned with the UK’s income tax higher rate threshold, which will rise from £892 a week to £962 a week in 2019-20. On class 1 secondary NICs for employers, the secondary threshold will rise with inflation from £162 a week to £166 a week. The level at which employers of people under 21 and apprentices under 25 start paying employer NICs will rise from £892 a week to £962 a week.

For the self-employed, who pay class 2 and class 4 NICs, the rate of class 2 NICs will rise in line with inflation from £2.95 a week to £3 a week. The small profits threshold will rise with inflation from £6,205 a year to £6,365 a year. On class 4 NICs, the lower profits limits will rise with inflation from £8,424 a year to £8,632 a year. The upper profits limit, which is aligned with the higher-rate threshold, will rise from £46,350 a year to £50,000 a year.

Class 3 contributions will allow people voluntarily to top up their national insurance record. The rate for class 3 will increase in line with inflation, from £14.65 a week to £15 a week. The regulations also make provision in the usual way for a Treasury grant of up to 5% of forecasted annual benefit expenditure, to be paid into the national insurance fund if needed during the period of 2019-20. There are similar provisions with respect to the national insurance fund for Northern Ireland.

I trust that that is a useful overview of the changes that we are making to bring rates of support and contributions to the Exchequer in line with inflation. As I said at the beginning of my speech, the draft regulations are a routine annual exercise and do not depart from recent practice. I therefore commend them to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Robert Jenrick]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for Bootle for indicating that he will not oppose the regulations. That is important for two reasons. First, they enable us to ensure that the disability element of tax credits and the rate of guardian’s allowance rise with inflation, providing the support that those individuals and families require. Secondly, they will enable us to continue to collect national insurance contributions for public services across the country.

In answer to the question on what the uprating mechanism will be when the current freeze comes to an end at the end of this financial year, the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 provided for a four-year freeze. That will then lapse and, subject to any further decision being approved by the House, the assumption, as we have made clear, is that we will revert to the pre-existing statutory obligations, which in most cases was a CPI uprating each year.

The hon. Gentleman raised a wider point about why we chose to adopt the policy at the beginning of the coalition Government. The reforms that we have pursued since 2010, including those legislated for in the 2016 Act, were necessary to put the public finances back on track and to protect the taxpayer following decades of unsustainable increases in welfare spending. Welfare spending rose by 65% in real terms—an increase of £84 billion—under the last Labour Government.

The benefit freeze, although undoubtedly difficult for many in our society, was an important part of a package of welfare reforms designed to incentivise work, which we know is the best route out of poverty. Since 2010, there have been record levels of individuals finding employment and near-record low levels of people who are unemployed. Those reforms have worked, and we will look to the next financial year, and the spending review that will precede it, to make decisions on how we will choose to proceed thereafter. I commend the regulations to the Committee, and I hope that all Members will support them.

Question put and agreed to.

Draft Tax Credits and Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Regulations 2019

Resolved,

That the Committee has considered the draft Tax Credits and Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Regulations 2019.—(Robert Jenrick.)