Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each financial year from 2015–16 to 2020–21, what are the estimated annual costs of (1) child benefit, (2) child tax credits, (3) free school meals for Year 1 and Year 2 children, (4) Universal Credit First Child Premium, (5) Working Tax Credit Childcare element, (6) working tax credit lone parent element, (7) housing benefit family premium, (8) child care grant, and (9) healthy start.

(1, 2, 5, 6)

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has published expenditure forecasts for tax credits and Child Benefit as part of their recently published Economic and Fiscal Outlook document. The relevant information relating to personal tax credits and child benefit is reproduced below. Expenditure forecasts are not produced for individual elements of tax credits.

(3)

The Government is providing over £1 billion of funding in 2014-15 and 2015-16 to meet the costs of universal free school meals for children in reception, year 1 and year 2. Funding for later years will be considered as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.

Schools also provide free school meals for children up to the age of 18, based on their parents’ eligibility for certain benefits. This will include children in years 1 and 2. This is funded separately from within the Dedicated Schools Grant allocated to schools. It is up to schools to decide how to use their budgets and the Government does not measure spend on free school meals for this cohort.

(4)

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has published expenditure forecasts for Universal Credit as part of their recently published Economic and Fiscal Outlook document. The relevant information is reproduced below.

Expenditure forecasts are not produced by individual Universal Credit elements and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

(7)

The information relating to housing benefit is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

(8)

Forecasts are not available for child care grants, for which the rate is set annually. £74 million of awards were made in the 2013/14 academic year. Information relating to student support grant for childcare for 2016/17 was published in a written statement by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on 21 July 2015. It confirmed that the maximum childcare grant payable in 2016-17, which covers 85 per cent of actual childcare costs, will be £155.24 per week for one child only and £266.15 per week for two or more children. Student support grants for childcare form just one component of the overall student grant budget.

(9)

The estimated annual costs for the Healthy start scheme for 2015/16 are £81.6 million, net of devolved administration receipts.