Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities to help ensure an equitable economic recovery for women from the Covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Chancellor speaks to his Cabinet colleagues frequently.
Women have benefitted from an unprecedented package of support introduced since March 2020 to help businesses and individuals.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) continues through to the end of September, with employees receiving 80% of their salary for hours not worked, up to £2,500 per month. Across the UK, where it was possible to link the data, 1.72 million women were on furlough at 30 April 2021 compared with 1.67 million men.
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) also continues until September 2021. The fifth and final grant will include a turnover test in order to ensure that the most generous support - a grant worth 80% of three months’ average trading profits, up to £7,500 - is targeted at those who need it the most. As of 6 June 2021, the scheme has received over 2.6 million claims from self-employed women across the four rounds of grant.
To continue to support people on low incomes during the pandemic, the Government has extended the temporary £20 per week uplift to the Universal Credit (UC) standard allowance to the end of September, with similar support for eligible Working Tax Credit (WTC) claimants. The majority of Universal Credit claimants are women: 53% in April 2021.
The increase to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit in cash terms in 2021-22 has also been maintained, an increase which was worth an extra £600 on average in 2020-21 for over 1.5 million households.
As there is a higher proportion of single women (52%) claiming housing support in the private rental sector with a shortfall than single men (18%) or couples (30%), increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of rates in the market, is more likely to benefit single women than single men.
While the long-term impacts of the pandemic on the labour market are still emerging, there has been a larger fall in employment among men compared to women so far. Since December-February quarter 2020, the female employment rate has fallen by 0.5 percentage points, while the male employment rate has fallen by 2.4 percentage points. This is in contrast to other G7 countries: between Q4 2019 and Q4 2020 Canada has seen a larger fall in the female employment rate, and France, Italy, Japan and the US have seen relatively similar falls for both men and women (within 0.2 percentage points).
The gender pay gap is also at its lowest level since records began, falling to a record low of 15.5% in April 2020, from 17.4% last year. For full-time employees, the gap is also at a record low of 7.4% in April 2020, down from 9.0% in April 2019. The Office for National Statistics found that evidence from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) suggests that coronavirus factors did not have a notable impact on the gender pay gap in 2020.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of current youth employment data on national output in each (a) region and (b) sector of the economy.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The pandemic is expected to leave lasting ‘scars’ on the UK economy's supply capacity, reducing the overall level of output in the long term. The OBR currently assumes there will be a 3% scarring impact on the UK economy from Covid-19, of which 1% comes from labour market supply impacts. This analysis is based on the impact of the pandemic on the labour market overall. More recent forecasts from the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund have revised down their view of scarring in light of recent data. Scarring in the labour market is likely to occur because it can take a long time for some unemployed workers to retrain or relocate appropriately.
That is why the Government has put in place a comprehensive package of support through our Plan for Jobs to help jobs and livelihoods and support the economy. We are continuing to protect jobs in every nation and region of the UK, including for younger workers, through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). Provisional HMRC statistics indicate that as at 31 May 2021, 322,400 jobs were furloughed where the employee was aged 24 or under.
As well as protecting jobs, we are also supporting young people to find new employment opportunities. This includes the £2bn Kickstart Scheme, which will create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people, and our new Youth Offer, which provides a guaranteed foundation of support to all 18-24 year olds on Universal Credit in the Intensive Work Search group.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of (a) the proportion of people on furlough who are aged under 25 and (b) the number of people aged under 25 who are at risk of unemployment once that scheme ends.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HM Revenue & Customs publish statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme regularly. The latest statistics were published on 1 July 2021 and can be found on GOV.UK.
Figures from these statistics show that on 31 May 2021, 14% of jobs on furlough (or 322,400) were held by an employee aged under 25. These are provisional figures.
HMRC have not made an estimate of the number of people aged under 25 who are at risk of unemployment once that scheme ends.
Recognising the impact the pandemic has had on young people, the Government has put in place a comprehensive package of support to help young people find work. This includes the £2bn Kickstart Scheme, which will create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people, and the new Youth Offer, which provides a guaranteed foundation of support to all 18-24 year olds on Universal Credit in the Intensive Work Search group.
The Government has also made significant investment in skills and training support to help young people build the skills they need to find work. This includes the expansion of traineeships for 16-24 year olds, a bespoke offer for school leavers to take high value Level 2 and 3 courses, and increased apprenticeship incentives for employers, with £3,000 for each new apprentice hired between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2021.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to introduce a new tenant hardship loan scheme to support private sector tenants.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The UK Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support which is available to tenants.
We have targeted our interventions as non-repayable forms of support, which offer a sustainable form of support for vulnerable renters, and do not encourage more debt.
We have extended the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and £20 per week uplift in Universal Credit until the end of September, helping renters to continue paying their rent. Local housing allowance rates have been maintained at their increased level in cash terms in 2021/22, meaning claimants renting in the private rented sector continue to benefit from the significant increase in the local housing allowance rates applied in April 2020. For those who require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. For 2021-22 the Government has made £140 million available in DHP funding, building on the £180 million provided last year.
Renters will continue to benefit from longer notice periods, giving them more time to make alternative arrangements. As of 1 June, until at least 30 September, notice periods will be at least 4 months except in the most egregious cases.
We continue to monitor the effectiveness of other examples of support, such as those from the devolved administrations in the UK, and note that uptake for loan support has been relatively low in Scotland and Wales.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the potential number of jobs that will be lost in the event that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is ended before all firms can reopen.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In order to help businesses and employees through the next stage of the pandemic, at Budget, the Government extended the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) until the end of September 2021. This extension is designed to strike the right balance between supporting the economy as it opens up, continuing to provide support and protect incomes, and ensuring incentives are in place to get people back to work as demand returns.
So far, the CJRS has helped to pay the wages of people in 11.5 million jobs across the country, and between the end of January and end of April 2021 1.5 million left the scheme. The Government has been clear, however, that it will not be possible to preserve every job or business, and that it should not stand in the way of the economy adapting, or of people finding new jobs or starting new businesses.
The Government is therefore maintaining its focus on helping people back into work. As part of its comprehensive Plan for Jobs, the Government announced the £2 billion Kickstart scheme which will create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people, and the new three year Restart programme, which will provide intensive and tailored support to over one million unemployed Universal Credit claimants across England and Wales and help them find work.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Office for National Statistics Graduates Report Graduates’ labour market outcomes during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: occupational switches and skill mismatch, published on 8 March; and what assessment have they made of the finding that over 25 per cent of employed graduates are employed in unskilled or low-skilled roles.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government understands that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on students graduating this year, and we recognise that some graduates may face particular challenges gaining employment because of the ongoing impact of the pandemic on the UK labour market and economy. Students have responded to the pandemic with formidable resilience and motivation, demonstrating a clear ability to adapt and to learn at pace at a challenging time.
As part of the government’s Skills Recovery Package Plan for Jobs, we are investing an additional £32 million in the National Careers Service up to March 2022. This investment will support delivery of individual careers advice for over 500,000 people whose jobs or learning have been affected by the pandemic (by the end of the 2021/22 financial year). This represents an increase of 22%.
Recent findings from the Office for National Statistics’ Graduates Report has highlighted that there is a higher proportion of graduates who have switched occupation as a result of the pandemic. We have worked with a range of institutions across the higher education sector to understand what more we can do to support graduates who are looking to enter the labour market at this challenging time. We have also worked closely with the Quality Assurance Agency, professional bodies, and the Office for Students to ensure students continue to leave university with qualifications that have real value, reflect their hard work, and allow them to progress in life.
To provide additional support, we have developed the ‘Graduate employment and skills guide’, aimed at students who are about to graduate, which was published on 10 May on the Office for Students’ website. The guide directs graduates to public, private, and voluntary sector opportunities to help them build employability skills, gain work experience, or enter the labour market, as well as providing links to further study options and resources on graduate mental health and wellbeing.
We have also worked with Universities UK to develop a Sector Statement of Support, which was published on 10 May 2021 on Universities UK’s website. The statement outlines what higher education providers and the government are doing to support graduates and encourages graduates to take advantage of the support and resources available.
We have also engaged with higher education providers to produce a collection of graduate employability case studies. Published on the provider-facing pages of the Office for Students’ website, these case studies showcase the breadth of innovative work and range of new measures that university and college careers services have introduced to support final-year students and recent graduates as they transition from university to graduate life.
Where securing work is challenging, graduates may be able to access financial support. Graduates can apply for Universal Credit immediately after finishing a degree, and they can check their eligibility at https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/eligibility.
The government wants every student to know that, when they undertake a higher education course, they can be confident that it has a strong chance of improving their life outcomes. A key element to assessing the quality of higher education courses is ensuring that graduates are achieving outcomes consistent with the higher education courses that they have completed. Our landmark Skills and Post-16 Education Bill makes clear the power of the Office for Students to enforce minimum expectations of student outcomes for universities, helping them to tackle low-quality provision and drive up standards. This is central to the approach taken by the Office for Students, which is currently consulting on setting minimum numerical baselines that providers will be expected to reach. We welcome that consultation and we expect it to lead to results.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of limited company directors who have been unable to access the Government's covid-19 financial support schemes; and what plans he has to support those directors.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The roadmap for lifting restrictions set out by the Government is under way, and will allow the economy to reopen, demand to increase and life to slowly return to normal. The Government has confirmed that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will be closing at the end of September 2021 and the Government will maintain its focus on helping people back into work.
The Government acknowledges that it has not been possible to support everyone as they might want, and that some of the rules, criteria and conditions needed to ensure that the schemes worked for the vast majority have meant that some people did not qualify. However, the Government has acted in line with its policy principles to target support at those who need it most and to protect public money against fraud, error and abuse, while reaching as many people as possible.
The Government has explored a range of options to support COMs who pay themselves through dividends. However, HMRC do not have the data to identify the population of directors who remunerate themselves through dividends. The 3.3 million population of people who receive income from dividends includes working directors but also inactive directors, such as the spouses or children of working directors who are jointly listed as directors of companies, and general investors. Given that some external estimates suggest an active director population which varies from 710,000 to 1.8 million, providing financial support to the entire 3.3 million population could result in more than three out of four grants going to people to whom support is not intended. This would be neither a fair nor responsible use of taxpayers’ money.
HMRC also do not have data to verify what parts of a director’s remuneration to support and therefore the amount of support to which they might be entitled. Dividend income could be coming from multiple sources including investments, and not just dividends in lieu of salary.
As COMs are not self-employed, they cannot qualify for the SEISS. However, those who pay themselves a salary through PAYE from their own company may be eligible for the CJRS. Those ineligible for the CJRS and SEISS may still be eligible for other financial support, including the Restart Grant of up to £18,000 and the extension of the temporary £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance for a further six months. The Government announced a £500 one-off payment to provide support to eligible Working Tax Credit claimants. All this builds on an existing package with spending of over £407 billion.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional steps they are taking to provide financial support to industries with large proportions of freelancer workers.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Government recognises the extreme disruption the necessary actions to combat Covid-19 are having on industries with large proportions of freelance workers.Eligible businesses may already benefit from available employment schemes, government grant and loan schemes, and a reduction in VAT and business rates relief. At Budget, the Chancellor extended many of these schemes beyond the end of the Roadmap to accommodate even the most cautious view about the time it might take to exit restrictions.
For example, the Government announced at Budget that the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will continue until September, with a fourth and a final fifth grant. This provides certainty to self-employed individuals, including many freelancers, as the economy reopens. The design of the SEISS, including the eligibility requirement that an individual’s trading profits must be at least equal to their non-trading income, means it is targeted at those who are most reliant on their self-employment income.
However, the SEISS is just one element of an unprecedented package of support for the self-employed. As well as the business support outlined above, the temporary £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance was extended at Budget for six months, and the Government also extended the suspension of the Minimum Income Floor for three months, to the end of July 2021, so that where self-employed claimants' earnings have fallen significantly, their Universal Credit award can continue to take into account their lower earnings.
At Budget, the Government also extended the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for a further five months from May until the end of September 2021. Furloughed workers in the UK will continue to receive more generous support than those in many other countries, as the CJRS ensures employees receive 80% of their current salary for hours not worked, up to £2500 per month, until the end of September. The CJRS has been available to all employers with a PAYE system and all employees on PAYE regardless of their employment contract. As such, freelancers and those on short term contracts could be eligible for the CJRS if they are on PAYE and meet the eligibility criteria.
In addition, the Culture Recovery Fund has already supported over 5000 organisations including theatres, music venues, comedy clubs and festivals, helping to enable performances to restart, protect jobs and create opportunities for freelancers.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on Monday 14 June, Official Report, col 4, that over nine out of 10 people are not in rent arrears at all; what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of people in rent arrears.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The latest published data from the English Housing Survey Household Resilience Study from November – December 2020, suggests that the vast majority (91%) of private renters are up to date with their rent. Of the 9% (353,000 households) in arrears, two thirds are in arrears of less than 2 months.
The UK Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support which is available to tenants.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and £20 per week uplift in Universal Credit are in place until the end of September helping renters to continue paying their rent. Local housing allowance rates have been maintained at their increased level in cash terms in 2021/22, meaning claimants renting in the private rented sector continue to benefit from the significant increase in the local housing allowance rates applied in April 2020. For those who require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. For 2021-22 the Government has made £140 million available in DHP funding, building on the £180 million provided last year.
Renters will continue to benefit from longer notice periods, giving them more time to make alternative arrangements. As of 1 June, until at least 30 September, notice periods will be at least 4 months except in the most egregious cases.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on tenants of the amendment from six months to four months to the minimum Section 21 notice period in England; and what representations he has received from housing charities on that amendment to that notice period.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
As we gradually ease restrictions introduced during the coronavirus pandemic, the time is now right to start to lift the emergency measures that were put in place to support renters and landlords. These measures could only ever be temporary. However, we are tapering down protections gradually to minimise the impact on tenants and public services.
The Government has to balance supporting tenants with landlords' ability to exercise their right to justice where needed. Tenants will continue to benefit from longer notice periods, giving them more time to make alternative arrangements. As of 1 June, until at least 30 September, notice periods will be at least 4 months except in the most egregious cases. Bailiffs have been asked not to carry out an eviction if anyone living in the property has Covid-19 symptoms or is self-isolating.
Other protections also remain in place, including new court rules and arrangements that were introduced in September to respond to the pandemic. Courts will continue to carefully prioritise the most serious cases first, such as anti-social behaviour, and the Government is funding a new mediation pilot as part of the court process.
Extensive financial support remains in place to help people meet their outgoings, including the furlough scheme and the Universal Credit uplift, which have both been extended until the end of September.
We regularly meet with key stakeholders across the sector, including housing charities, to ensure they are informed of the latest information and have the opportunity to provide representations.