Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government has plans to commission an independent assessment of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on levels of (a) poverty and (b) household debt experienced by (i) groups with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, (ii) different regions of the UK and (iii) people (A) on zero-hours contracts, (B) who are self-employed and (C) with other types of employment status.

The Government continues to monitor and publish trends in households’ circumstances across the UK, using a range of sources.

The Government already publishes data on people in low income households by various protected characteristics, region and economic status through its Household Below Average Income (HBAI) publication.

However, in order to illustrate the challenge faced by households during COVID-19, and how Government interventions have supported households of different income levels, HM Treasury published a distributional analysis alongside the Summer Economic Update: Plan for Jobs showing estimates of the change in household net incomes between February and May 2020. The Government will consider updating this analysis at an appropriate point in the future. Given the economic and fiscal significance of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) as responses to the COVID-19 outbreak, HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have committed to evaluating the two schemes and their impacts.

The Office for National Statistics routinely publishes data on financial debt through the Wealth and Assets Survey, which includes breakdowns by age and region. The Government works closely with the Money and Pensions Service to monitor financial difficulty through an annual survey of 22,000 people. The latest data will be published next month. The Government also monitors information coming from the Financial Conduct Authority’s biennial Financial Lives Survey, which provides a comprehensive insight into the finances of 16,000 adults and has data by characteristics such as gender, age and working status. The latest survey will be published in early 2021. This is in addition to Government engagement with other stakeholders to monitor and understand the current and future impact of COVID-19 on people’s finances, including on the demand for debt advice and debt solutions.

In respect of assessing the impacts of policy decisions on people with protected characteristics, HM Treasury carefully considers the equalities impacts of the individual policy decisions taken on all policies that are likely to affect those sharing protected characteristics, in line with both its legal obligations under the Equalities Act 2010 and with its strong commitment to equality issues.