Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average income is of families with at least one parent in work who are (a) eligible and (b) ineligible for the 30-hour early education entitlement for three and four year olds.
Answered by Will Quince
All three and four-year-olds are eligible for 15 hours free early education, regardless of parental income or working status. An additional 15 hours is available to parents who are working at least 16 hours a week at national minimum wage or living wage, but earn under £100,000 per year. This applies to single-parent households as well as both parents in a two-parent household, unless one partner is in receipt of certain benefits (Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Carer’s Allowance or contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance).
The department holds some data on parental income levels from the 2019 Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents, but not the relevant data to be able to assess against eligibility for the 30 hours entitlements. We are currently collecting our next set of data through the 2021 Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents, scheduled for release in July 2022.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of families who are in work but unable to access the 30-hour early education entitlement for three and four year-olds.
Answered by Will Quince
All three and four-year-olds are eligible for 15 hours of free early education, regardless of parental income or working status.
Families are entitled to 30 hours free childcare if the sole parent in a single parent family, or both parents in a two-parent household, are working at least 16 hours a week at national minimum wage or living wage, but earns under £100,000 per year. Approximately 72% of eligible families were registered to take up a 30 hours free childcare place in January 2021.
The number of children eligible for 30 hours changes each year due to changing cohort size and parental employment changes. An estimated 460,000 children may have been eligible in January 2021, although this estimate does not account for the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on parental employment.
In 2019, the childcare and early years survey of parents found that of those not taking up the 30 hour entitlement offer, 52% gave reasons relating to eligibility, such as being unable to meet the income thresholds by either working too little or earning above £100,000 per year. The remaining 48% gave reasons unrelated to eligibility, mostly relating to not requiring the free childcare. However, 7% of parents surveyed said their provider did not offer the 30 hours of free childcare. Further statistics from the survey can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2019.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the introduction of the High-Income Child Benefit Tax charge on single-parent families.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Government introduced the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) from January 2013 to ensure that support for families is targeted at those who need it most. The tax charge applies to anyone with an individual income over £50,000 who claims Child Benefit, or whose partner claims it. HICBC is calculated on an individual rather than a household basis, in line with other income tax policy.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not routinely collect information on the circumstances of individuals in a household, so HMRC cannot assess the impact the introduction of the High Income Child Benefit charge has had on single parent families.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support single parent families in the context of the impact of the covid-19 outbreak on those families.
Answered by Will Quince
Since the start of the pandemic, the Government’s priority has been to protect lives and people’s livelihoods, through its economic response.
It has supported those on low incomes, including single parent families, in a number of ways, such as by increasing the living wage, and by spending an estimated £112 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.
For single parents on Universal Credit, there is help with childcare costs and a dedicated Work Coach. The Government considers that, where possible, it is in the best interests of children to be in working households, and we are committed to helping lone parents into a job which fits in around their caring responsibilities. Claimants with children will benefit from a work allowance and Universal Credit pays up to 85 per cent of childcare costs, compared to 70 per cent in legacy benefits which can be claimed up to a month before starting a job.
To further support those with children we introduced the Covid Winter Grant Scheme, now the Covid Local Support Grant, with over £420m provided to Local Authorities in England between 1 December 2020 and 30 September 2021 to help the most vulnerable children and families with the cost of food, utilities and other essentials.
As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help people move into and progress in work as quickly as possible, based on clear evidence around the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. We are investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs which is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on trends in the level of poverty among single parent families in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Will Quince
It is not possible to estimate the impacts of COVID-19 on relative and absolute poverty as this requires estimates of income for all people in the UK and this data is not yet available.
A range of measures are designed to support claimants, including one parent families such as easements from work-related requirements, same day advances and signposting to expert third-party services. There is also help available for childcare costs for children of any age. Claimants can recover up to 85% of their eligible childcare costs through UC (or 70% of those costs through working tax credits). Further assistance may be available through the Flexible Support Fund.
Since Covid-19, we have also strengthened the welfare system, spending £7.4 billion on measures such as the Universal Credit uplift, on top of additional support such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
We have built on this extra support through the introduction of our Covid Winter Grant Scheme, now running until 20th June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.
he Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, backed by £220 million, has already provided support during the Easter holidays this year, and will continue to do so during the summer and Christmas holidays.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on trends in the level of poverty among single-parent families.
Answered by Will Quince
We have strengthened the welfare system, spending £7.4 billion on measures such as the Universal Credit uplift, on top of additional support such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
We have built on this extra support through the introduction of our Covid Winter Grant Scheme, now running to the 20th June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.
The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, backed by £220 million, has already provided support during the Easter holidays this year, and will continue to do so during the summer and Christmas holidays.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will review the High Income Child Benefit Tax Charge to remove the disparity between a household with two individual incomes of £49,000 that receives full child benefit entitlement and a single parent household income of £50,000 that is required to pay the High Income Child Benefit Tax Charge.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government introduced the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) from January 2013 to ensure that support for families is targeted at those who need it most. The tax charge applies to anyone with an individual income over £50,000 who claims Child Benefit, or whose partner claims it.
HICBC is calculated on an individual rather than a household basis, in line with other income tax policy. Basing HICBC on household incomes would mean finding out the incomes of everyone in each of the 7.8 million households currently registered for Child Benefit. This would effectively introduce a new means test, which would be costly to administer and create burdens on the majority of families who receive Child Benefit.
The Government has no current plans to review HICBC but as with all elements of tax policy, keeps this under review as part of the annual Budget process.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure effective, joined up data collection for familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) across the UK, such as a national FH registry from birth to death, to support the Government’s ambition to identify 25 per cent of people FH in the UK by 2024, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The NHS Long Term Plan sets the ambition to increase genetic testing and diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) from 7% to 25% by 2024. To achieve this, the National Health Service will undertake a service evaluation of child-parent cascade screening in seven Academic Health Science Network areas in England. NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided £500,000 to enable this pilot to be implemented. The pilot will be launched in June 2021 and will test over 30,000 children for cholesterol at their one-year vaccination over the next 24 months.
This will support early diagnosis by identifying families with FH before the onset of clinical disease providing an opportunity for prevention with statin therapy and where necessary other lipid lowering drugs. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with clinicians and patient representatives to inform on a functional FH registry and are investing an additional £335,000 on a single life-long nation-wide database.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the target set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, what progress he has made on achieving the ambition of identifying 25 per cent of people with familial hypercholesterolaemia in the UK by 2024.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The NHS Long Term Plan sets the ambition to increase genetic testing and diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) from 7% to 25% by 2024. To achieve this, the National Health Service will undertake a service evaluation of child-parent cascade screening in seven Academic Health Science Network areas in England. NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided £500,000 to enable this pilot to be implemented. The pilot will be launched in June 2021 and will test over 30,000 children for cholesterol at their one-year vaccination over the next 24 months.
This will support early diagnosis by identifying families with FH before the onset of clinical disease providing an opportunity for prevention with statin therapy and where necessary other lipid lowering drugs. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with clinicians and patient representatives to inform on a functional FH registry and are investing an additional £335,000 on a single life-long nation-wide database.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what, if any, assessment they have made of the level at which child benefit would need to be paid to ensure that no more than 100,000 children of single-parent families are in poverty.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
No assessment has been made.
This Government champions the principle of work as the best route out of poverty and towards financial independence. Getting parents back to work and supporting them to progress is at the heart of our sustainable approach to tackling child poverty. Our approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risk of child poverty and is underpinned by our Plan for Jobs.