Asked by: Lord Brennan of Canton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect on the finances of self-employed people working in the creative industries of calculating levels of covid-19 related grants on the basis of profits rather than turnover.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) allows eligible individuals to claim a taxable grant worth 80 per cent of their average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering three months, and capped at £7,500 in total. This scheme is intended to support individuals who rely primarily on their trading profits from self-employment and who have been adversely affected by COVID-19.
The self-employed are a very diverse population. They have a wide mix of turnover and profits, with monthly and annual variations even in normal times. The SEISS is based on trading profits, as providing support on the basis of an individual’s past turnover would be unfair. For example, an individual could have had a high turnover, but have made a loss. A turnover-based system would provide more support to such an individual than to an individual with a lower turnover who made a profit.
More information about how income and trading profits are calculated can be found at www.gov.uk/guidance/how-hmrc-works-out-total-income-and-trading-profits-for-the-self-employment-income-support-scheme.
Asked by: Lord Brennan of Canton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what equality impact assessment his Department has undertaken in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme rules in respect of women and new mothers.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
HM Treasury takes care to pay due regard to the equality impacts of its policy decisions relating to the COVID-19 outbreak, in line with all legal requirements and the Government’s commitment to promoting equality. There are internal procedural requirements and support in place for ensuring that such considerations inform decisions taken by ministers.
Asked by: Lord Brennan of Canton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what equality impact assessments his Department has undertaken of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme on people with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
HM Treasury takes care to pay due regard to the equality impacts of its policy decisions relating to the COVID-19 outbreak, in line with all legal requirements and the Government’s commitment to promoting equality. There are internal procedural requirements and support in place for ensuring that such considerations inform decisions taken by ministers.
Asked by: Lord Brennan of Canton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will amend the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme rules to enable women that took maternity leave in the relevant years to exempt periods of maternity leave from the average income calculation for that scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Self-Employed Income Support Scheme has been designed to deliver support as quickly and effectively as possible to millions of individuals. The Government understands the challenges faced by those with periods of maternity leave and the existing averaging calculation does account for periods of reduced profits. The Government will continue to work with stakeholders to make sure the correct funding reaches those who need it most, keeping all policies under review, while ensuring that any potential changes do not risk the wider delivery of Government schemes.Asked by: Lord Brennan of Canton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential differential effect on the performance of female-led businesses of not discounting periods of maternity leave in the calculation of financial support under the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Self-Employed Income Support Scheme has been designed to deliver support as quickly and effectively as possible to millions of individuals. The Government understands the challenges faced by those with periods of maternity leave and the existing averaging calculation does account for periods of reduced profits. The Government will continue to work with stakeholders to make sure the correct funding reaches those who need it most, keeping all policies under review, while ensuring that any potential changes do not risk the wider delivery of Government schemes.Asked by: Lord Brennan of Canton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the financial effect on self-employed women in the creative industries of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme not discounting periods of maternity leave when calculating financial support.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Self-Employed Income Support Scheme has been designed to deliver support as quickly and effectively as possible to millions of individuals. The Government understands the challenges faced by those with periods of maternity leave and the existing averaging calculation does account for periods of reduced profits. The Government will continue to work with stakeholders to make sure the correct funding reaches those who need it most, keeping all policies under review, while ensuring that any potential changes do not risk the wider delivery of Government schemes.Asked by: Lord Brennan of Canton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his response to the question asked by the hon Member for Cardiff West in the urgent question from the Rt hon Member for Oxford East on 12 May 2020, what the evidential basis is for the calculation that there are 120,000 people who were due to start a job after 28 February 2020 and who are not covered by the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The figures provided on 12 May were initial estimates based on PAYE RTI submissions to 8 April. PAYE schemes have until 19 April following the end of the tax year to submit details of payments. Equivalent figures based on complete data are not yet available. The data submitted by employers omits start and leaving dates for a proportion of employments, and to provide complete and full figures it would be necessary to estimate these dates. This has not been possible in the time available to answer this question.
Asked by: Lord Brennan of Canton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people who draw dividends in lieu of a salary from a Limited Company in the UK.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
HMRC administrative data does not cover the sources of dividend income. It is therefore not possible to determine accurately the number of individuals who have taken dividend income in lieu of a salary from Limited Companies.
HMRC publish statistics on the number of taxpayers receiving dividend income and the amounts received for tax years from 2010-11 to 2017-18. These statistics do not distinguish between dividends paid as salary, and dividends received as returns from investments. These statistics are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/investment-income-2010-to-2011.