Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the financial effect on hospitality sector workers of not having had their tronc payments included in the calculation of their furlough payments.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) aims to enable employers to keep people in employment. In order to achieve this, the CJRS grants compensate employers for the payments that they are contractually obliged to make in order to avoid the need for redundancies. Covering payments made at the discretion of the employer or a client such as tips, including those distributed through tronc payments, would go beyond the objectives of the scheme.

The Government recognises that for some employees, the pay in scope for this emergency grant package will be less than the overall sum they usually receive. The Government is supporting people on low incomes who need to rely on the welfare system through a significant package of temporary measures introduced in March 2020. This includes a £20 per week increase to the 2020-21 Universal Credit standard allowance and Working Tax Credit basic element and almost £1 billion of additional support for private renters claiming Universal Credit or Housing Benefit in 2020/21 following the increase of the local housing allowance rate to the 30th percentile. These changes are benefitting new and existing claimants.