Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much has been underspent, year on year, from projected budgets of foregone revenue due to couples claiming the marriage allowance.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Marriage Allowance allows a spouse or civil partner to transfer ten per cent of their income tax personal allowance, as long as the partner is not paying tax at higher rates.
The most recent estimates for the cost and uptake of Marriage Allowance can be found in HMRC’s published tax relief statistics, last updated in January 2026. This is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-reliefs/tax-relief-statistics-january-2026.
The number of Marriage Allowance claimants was estimated at 2,440,000 for the 2023-2024 tax year and the estimated cost is projected to be £590 million for the 2025-2026 tax year. Estimates of the number of claimants are the latest available and reflect only successful claimants up to that point in time and not the anticipated full take up when all backdated claims have been made in future tax years (up to 4 years later).
Data for previous tax years (up to 6 years) on the cost and uptake of Marriage Allowance can be found in the non-structural tax relief statistics, which is available at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs/non-structural-tax-relief-statistics-december-2024. This is summarised below.
Tax Year | Cost (£ million) | Number of Claimants |
2019–2020 | 520 | 2,020,000 |
2020–2021 | 560 | 2,170,000 |
2021–2022 | 560 | 2,280,000 |
2022–2023 | 580 | 2,350,000 |
2023–2024 (estimated) | 580 | 2,440,000 |
2024–2025 (estimated) | 580 | Not stated |
HMRC does not produce household-level analysis for Marriage Allowance eligibility.
HMRC’s ongoing communications campaign for Marriage Allowance seeks to raise awareness of the eligibility criteria for the allowance, encourage take-up and educate customers on how to claim. It consists of regular promotional activity throughout the year bolstered by paid-for activity at key times of increased interest or engagement in the allowance for customers.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what distributional analysis they have done on the (1) eligibility, and (2) take up, of the marriage allowance since its introduction, by age and income decile.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Marriage Allowance allows a spouse or civil partner to transfer ten per cent of their income tax personal allowance, as long as the partner is not paying tax at higher rates.
The most recent estimates for the cost and uptake of Marriage Allowance can be found in HMRC’s published tax relief statistics, last updated in January 2026. This is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-reliefs/tax-relief-statistics-january-2026.
The number of Marriage Allowance claimants was estimated at 2,440,000 for the 2023-2024 tax year and the estimated cost is projected to be £590 million for the 2025-2026 tax year. Estimates of the number of claimants are the latest available and reflect only successful claimants up to that point in time and not the anticipated full take up when all backdated claims have been made in future tax years (up to 4 years later).
Data for previous tax years (up to 6 years) on the cost and uptake of Marriage Allowance can be found in the non-structural tax relief statistics, which is available at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs/non-structural-tax-relief-statistics-december-2024. This is summarised below.
Tax Year | Cost (£ million) | Number of Claimants |
2019–2020 | 520 | 2,020,000 |
2020–2021 | 560 | 2,170,000 |
2021–2022 | 560 | 2,280,000 |
2022–2023 | 580 | 2,350,000 |
2023–2024 (estimated) | 580 | 2,440,000 |
2024–2025 (estimated) | 580 | Not stated |
HMRC does not produce household-level analysis for Marriage Allowance eligibility.
HMRC’s ongoing communications campaign for Marriage Allowance seeks to raise awareness of the eligibility criteria for the allowance, encourage take-up and educate customers on how to claim. It consists of regular promotional activity throughout the year bolstered by paid-for activity at key times of increased interest or engagement in the allowance for customers.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what research, if any, they have carried out or commissioned on the reasons for the level of take up of the marriage allowance.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Marriage Allowance allows a spouse or civil partner to transfer ten per cent of their income tax personal allowance, as long as the partner is not paying tax at higher rates.
The most recent estimates for the cost and uptake of Marriage Allowance can be found in HMRC’s published tax relief statistics, last updated in January 2026. This is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-reliefs/tax-relief-statistics-january-2026.
The number of Marriage Allowance claimants was estimated at 2,440,000 for the 2023-2024 tax year and the estimated cost is projected to be £590 million for the 2025-2026 tax year. Estimates of the number of claimants are the latest available and reflect only successful claimants up to that point in time and not the anticipated full take up when all backdated claims have been made in future tax years (up to 4 years later).
Data for previous tax years (up to 6 years) on the cost and uptake of Marriage Allowance can be found in the non-structural tax relief statistics, which is available at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs/non-structural-tax-relief-statistics-december-2024. This is summarised below.
Tax Year | Cost (£ million) | Number of Claimants |
2019–2020 | 520 | 2,020,000 |
2020–2021 | 560 | 2,170,000 |
2021–2022 | 560 | 2,280,000 |
2022–2023 | 580 | 2,350,000 |
2023–2024 (estimated) | 580 | 2,440,000 |
2024–2025 (estimated) | 580 | Not stated |
HMRC does not produce household-level analysis for Marriage Allowance eligibility.
HMRC’s ongoing communications campaign for Marriage Allowance seeks to raise awareness of the eligibility criteria for the allowance, encourage take-up and educate customers on how to claim. It consists of regular promotional activity throughout the year bolstered by paid-for activity at key times of increased interest or engagement in the allowance for customers.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many couples have (1) been eligible to claim the marriage allowance, and (2) claimed the marriage allowance, year on year, since its introduction.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Marriage Allowance allows a spouse or civil partner to transfer ten per cent of their income tax personal allowance, as long as the partner is not paying tax at higher rates.
The most recent estimates for the cost and uptake of Marriage Allowance can be found in HMRC’s published tax relief statistics, last updated in January 2026. This is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-reliefs/tax-relief-statistics-january-2026.
The number of Marriage Allowance claimants was estimated at 2,440,000 for the 2023-2024 tax year and the estimated cost is projected to be £590 million for the 2025-2026 tax year. Estimates of the number of claimants are the latest available and reflect only successful claimants up to that point in time and not the anticipated full take up when all backdated claims have been made in future tax years (up to 4 years later).
Data for previous tax years (up to 6 years) on the cost and uptake of Marriage Allowance can be found in the non-structural tax relief statistics, which is available at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs/non-structural-tax-relief-statistics-december-2024. This is summarised below.
Tax Year | Cost (£ million) | Number of Claimants |
2019–2020 | 520 | 2,020,000 |
2020–2021 | 560 | 2,170,000 |
2021–2022 | 560 | 2,280,000 |
2022–2023 | 580 | 2,350,000 |
2023–2024 (estimated) | 580 | 2,440,000 |
2024–2025 (estimated) | 580 | Not stated |
HMRC does not produce household-level analysis for Marriage Allowance eligibility.
HMRC’s ongoing communications campaign for Marriage Allowance seeks to raise awareness of the eligibility criteria for the allowance, encourage take-up and educate customers on how to claim. It consists of regular promotional activity throughout the year bolstered by paid-for activity at key times of increased interest or engagement in the allowance for customers.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Making Tax Digital, if any, on the tax gap attributable to intentional tax evasion; and what plans they have to implement such a scheme directly to address that issue.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax helps taxpayers pay the right amount of tax. It is expected to generate almost £1 billion in additional tax revenue in 2030–31 by encouraging timely and accurate record keeping and reducing that part of the tax gap caused by taxpayer errors and failure to take reasonable care.
HMRC is committed to closing the tax gap further and tackling other types of non-compliance such as tax evasion, tax avoidance, criminal attacks, hidden economy activity, legal interpretation issues, and non-payment.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, her Department was invited by the Office for National Statistics to provide evidence or input into its review of the ethnicity harmonised standard.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
A review of the harmonised standard for ethnicity data collection is underway by the Government Statistical Service Harmonisation team.
A public consultation between October 2025 and February 2026 sought views from a wide range of users, including Government Departments and public bodies, to understand user needs for ethnic group data. This was supplemented by a programme of engagement activity, including with representatives of all government departments.
ONS have committed to providing an initial response to the public consultation in April, and a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026 will include more detailed information on the departments that responded to the consultation.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the process of providing reimbursements to people who have over paid their tax in the context of the Loan Charge review conducted HMRC.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government commissioned an independent review of the loan charge to help bring the matter to a close for people who have not settled and paid their loan charge liabilities. The review identified affordability as a key barrier preventing those individuals from settling and made recommendations to remove this barrier.
In recognition of the unique circumstances, the Government is taking the extraordinary step of relieving people of some of these liabilities.
The Government has no plans to apply the review’s recommendations beyond those individuals and employers with outstanding liabilities that were the focus of the review.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department will offer the same settlement terms from the implementation of the McCann Review to people that have settled with HMRC.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government commissioned an independent review of the loan charge to help bring the matter to a close for people who have not settled and paid their loan charge liabilities. The review identified affordability as a key barrier preventing those individuals from settling and made recommendations to remove this barrier.
In recognition of the unique circumstances, the Government is taking the extraordinary step of relieving people of some of these liabilities.
The Government has no plans to apply the review’s recommendations beyond those individuals and employers with outstanding liabilities that were the focus of the review.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department will extend the discount under Loan Charge settlement plan to schemes used before December 2010.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government commissioned an independent review of the loan charge to help bring the matter to a close for people who have not settled and paid their loan charge liabilities. The review identified affordability as a key barrier preventing those individuals from settling and made recommendations to remove this barrier.
The Government has no plans to apply the review’s recommendations beyond those individuals and employers with outstanding liabilities that were the focus of the review.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) basic rate and (b) higher rate tax payers there were in December (i) 2021 and (ii) 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
This information is not available on a monthly basis and figures for December cannot be provided.
The number of individuals in the Income Tax rate bands, Basic and Higher rate, for tax years 2021 to 2022 and 2025 to 2026 is published in HMRC’s accredited official statistics. Updated forecasts are published in the OBR’s March 2026 Economic and fiscal outlook.
Projected estimates for the 2025 to 2026 tax year in HMRC's statistics are based upon the 2022 to 2023 Survey of Personal Incomes using economic assumptions consistent with the OBR’s March 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.