Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Institute of International Finance and OECD's debt transparency initiative; and whether she has had discussions with relevant stakeholders on the adequacy of the information on lending activities provided by private creditors to that Initiative.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK is a strong advocate for enhancing debt transparency including for private sector debt. As part of this, we supported the Institute of International Finance (IIF) and OECD Debt Transparency Initiative, set up in 2021, and the IIF’s Voluntary Principles for Debt Transparency, which underpinned it. The UK has taken a lead in ensuring its own lending is transparent and meets G20 best practice, publishing details of all new direct lending quarterly and the stock of debt owed to the UK annually.
The UK continues to engage closely with the private sector and other relevant stakeholders through international fora, such as the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, to promote the importance of transparency, and to explore ways to build on and improve existing efforts.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average waiting time was for processing a new application for Child Benefit in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
In May 2023 HMRC launched a new digital service for child benefit claims.
The details requested by the Hon. Member are published by HMRC at: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/42980/documents/213810/default/
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of when the online system for (a) checking the completeness of National Insurance records and (b) paying top ups will be launched.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
After a period of internal testing, we launched the service in private beta on 22nd April 24 to a small number of users. Over the period 22nd April 24 until the 29th April 24 we have gradually increased number of users in private beta. We made the service available to everyone in a public beta on 29th April 2024.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the overpayment of tax credits in the (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
Estimates for the overpayments of tax credits in financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24 are not available. The latest statistics on the overpayments of tax credits on a financial year basis are for 2021-22 and are published here: Child and Working Tax Credits statistics: supplement on payments - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Statistics for 2022-23 are due to be published by HMRC in September 2024.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to protect vulnerable tax credit claimants who have accrued overpayment debt through no fault of their own.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The Government takes a considered and balanced approach to the recovery of benefit debt and HMRC has strong processes in place to support those that may be struggling to pay back tax credits overpayments with manageable recovery plans.
HMRC calculates tax credit awards across the financial year to ensure customers receive regular and consistent financial support. Customers are required to tell us of any change in circumstances and when they do, awards are recalculated and balanced across the remainder of the period. Customers are made aware of any overpayment that is generated as a result and the process to challenge the overpayment if they do not agree it is correct.
HMRC has a well-established approach to help tax credit customers who are having difficulty repaying a debt and require extra support, including offering its customers debt advice referral to the Money and Pensions Service Money Adviser Network for a free bespoke independent debt service.
HMRC will work with customers and can agree a temporary reduction in the rate of repayment based on their financial circumstances. In some cases, recovery of the debt can be paused. When customers and their tax credit debt move to Universal Credit, they can continue to access support through DWP.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many additional staff he has (a) recruited and (b) transferred from other roles in order to process additional changes to National Insurance records arising from (i) the HMRC exercise to correct errors in records relating to Home Responsibilities Protection and (ii) the forthcoming online service on payment of voluntary NI contributions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
HMRC has recruited 42 FTE (Admin Officers) to support the 18 months Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) exercise, adding to the small core team in situ, there has been no transfer of operational resource to HRP. The forthcoming online service for the payment of voluntary NI contributions, will allow HMRC to see a reduction in the operational resource supporting the current route. In April 2023 we deployed an additional 200 FTE to support the payment of voluntary National Insurance in a telephony/post capacity.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) letters have been issued to people who are likely to have been underpaid their state pension as a result of their national insurance record not including the correct entitlement of home responsibilities protection, (b) responses have been received and (c) people have had their state pension increased as a result; and how much has been paid in arrears as of 30 January 2024.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The main corrections exercise for the historic Home Responsibilities Protection issue began in Autumn 2023. HMRC and DWP are currently working through the initial responses at this early stage in the exercise.
The Government will publish key management information on the exercise, established between the HMRC and DWP regularly, beginning in the coming months.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the fairness of the high income child benefit charge.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The Government is committed to managing the public finances responsibly. The High-Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) ensures that the Government supports the majority of families while keeping welfare expenditure sustainable.
The charge is calculated on an individual rather than household basis in line with other tax policy. If the HICBC was based on household income, this could mean finding out the incomes and relationships of individuals in all the households currently registered for Child Benefit. This would put disproportionate burdens on most Child Benefit claimants, who are not affected by HICBC and currently do not need to provide this information to HM Revenue and Customs. The Government therefore considers that the current approach remains proportionate.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people who have paid voluntary National Insurance contributions for one or more years are waiting to have those contributions credited to their National Insurance record; what the average waiting time is between paying voluntary National Insurance contributions and having them credited to a National Insurance record; and when he expects individuals to be able to view such contributions online.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
Information on how many people have paid voluntary National Insurance contributions for one or more years and are waiting to have those contributions credited to their National Insurance record is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The average waiting time between a customer paying National Insurance contributions and having them credited to a National Insurance record is currently 12 working days, Class 3 allocations are currently being prioritised due to the Class 3 payment extension announcement.
Payments should show on customer records within 8 weeks of when a customer calls the NI helpline. If a customer makes a payment of voluntary National Insurance Contributions, the payment will automatically allocate into their National Insurance record when the money is cleared by HMRC’s banking system. It normally takes a day to then be visible for the customer to view. However, this could take up to 8 week if there is any kind of discrepancy that causes a rejection that requires further investigation.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been found within their Department's estate.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property. Survey work is underway.