Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the North Tyneside Conservative Federation is under investigation for potential furlough fraud.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Covid schemes have helped millions of people and businesses through the pandemic. HMRC prioritised getting money to those who needed it with the schemes designed to minimise fraud while not unnecessarily delaying payments.
HMRC have a statutory duty in respect of customer confidentiality so cannot disclose information on individual customers or businesses as specified in the question.
HMRC are taking tough action to tackle fraudulent behaviour. Anyone who keeps grant money despite knowing they were not entitled to it, faces having to repay up to double the amount they received, plus interest and potentially face criminal prosecution.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of further support for (a) care staff and (b) other people who rely on their car for work in the form of a mileage uplift.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) are used by employers to reimburse an employee’s expenses for business mileage in their private vehicle.
AMAPs are intended to create administrative simplicity and certainty by using an average rate, which reflects vehicle running costs including fuel, servicing and depreciation. Fuel is therefore only one component, constituting around a third of total costs included within the rate.
Ultimately it is for employers to determine the rate at which they reimburse their employees. Therefore, the AMAP rate is advisory and employers can choose to pay more or less than the advisory rate. Employees who receive less than the AMAP rate can claim tax relief on the difference. Employees who receive more will not be taxed on the difference if they can provide evidence of the expenditure.
Most domiciliary care staff are employed by private providers who decide their mileage reimbursement rate.
Like all taxes and allowances, the Government keeps the AMAP rate under review.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he has taken to ensure that pensioners who do not pay council tax are not excluded from the energy council tax support scheme.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Council Tax Energy Rebate will be paid in full to pensioners in England who are in households in bands A-D. This includes pensioners that pay less than £150 or do not pay council tax as a result of Local Council Tax Support. Households in higher bands might be eligible for the discretionary funding administered by local authorities if they are not eligible for the core rebate scheme.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has published guidance on eligibility and the approach to households that are exempt from council tax.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has any plans to change the rules on child tax credit to allow it to be split across couples who share custody jointly.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Child Tax Credit (CTC) supports families with the extra costs of raising a child. The Government currently has no plans for splitting CTC in cases where parents have joint care, because there are provisions in place allowing parents to make a joint election as to who should receive the payments. Where parents cannot agree, HM Revenue & Customs can decide who shall be entitled based on the information provided by both parents and the facts in relation to each’s circumstances.
CTC is typically paid to the main carer because they bear more of the expenditure for the child and splitting payments would reduce the amount available to them, when they are often the parent less well placed to earn additional income, and might result in neither household being able to afford extra costs. Unfortunately, there can be no guarantee that both parties will be satisfied with the outcome, although this would equally be the case should parents have to agree how payments were split if formal arrangements for this were put in place. Therefore, ideally, parents should reach agreement between themselves.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will introduce a 5 per cent reduction in VAT for the hair and beauty industry in the forthcoming spending review.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The temporary reduced rate of VAT was introduced on 15 July to support the cash flow and viability of over 150,000 businesses and protect 2.4 million jobs in the hospitality and tourism sectors, and will run until 31 March 2021.
This policy will cost over £2 billion. The Government keeps all taxes under review, and any future decisions on tax policy will be made at Budget.
The Government has announced a significant support package to help businesses from a whole range of sectors through the winter months, which includes an extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, an extension of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant, and an extension of the application window for the Government-backed loan schemes.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will undertake an immediate review of all covid-19 related support available to the hospitality sector in order to implement changes to the structure and format of support to allow suppliers to benefit alongside venues.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government recognises that businesses within the hospitality supply chain have been acutely disrupted by recent necessary restrictions to hospitality businesses. The Government has acted to deliver support to these businesses, and ease cash flow problems for businesses through:
In addition to this wide-ranging package of support, we have also ensured businesses can access affordable, Government backed finance through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBLS) for larger firms and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBL) for small and micro enterprises. Under both CBILS and BBLS, invoice finance facilities in addition to term loans, overdrafts, and asset financing facilities are available to eligible businesses. Businesses will also be given until the end of March to access the BBLS, CBILS, and the CLBLS. ‘Pay as You Grow’ options are also available for businesses which have taken out loans through BBLS or CBILS, giving a longer repayment period and allowing further flexibility on repayments.
These businesses have and will continue to benefit directly from Government support schemes, and indirectly from the support offered to the pubs and restaurants they supply, protecting jobs in the industry. In the meantime, the Government will continue to engage with the sector and keep under review the case for further interventions, including measures to ease cash flow problems.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will increase access to funding for the supply chain of the hospitality sector during the covid-19 outbreak potentially through invoice factoring to ease cash flow as suppliers commit resources to hospitality restart.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government recognises that businesses within the hospitality supply chain have been acutely disrupted by recent necessary restrictions to hospitality businesses. The Government has acted to deliver support to these businesses, and ease cash flow problems for businesses through:
In addition to this wide-ranging package of support, we have also ensured businesses can access affordable, Government backed finance through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBLS) for larger firms and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBL) for small and micro enterprises. Under both CBILS and BBLS, invoice finance facilities in addition to term loans, overdrafts, and asset financing facilities are available to eligible businesses. Businesses will also be given until the end of March to access the BBLS, CBILS, and the CLBLS. ‘Pay as You Grow’ options are also available for businesses which have taken out loans through BBLS or CBILS, giving a longer repayment period and allowing further flexibility on repayments.
These businesses have and will continue to benefit directly from Government support schemes, and indirectly from the support offered to the pubs and restaurants they supply, protecting jobs in the industry. In the meantime, the Government will continue to engage with the sector and keep under review the case for further interventions, including measures to ease cash flow problems.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing people who have instructed solicitors to buy or sell a house to benefit from the stamp duty holiday after the deadline.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The temporary SDLT relief was designed to stimulate immediate momentum in a property market where property transactions fell by as much as 50 per cent during the COVID-19 lockdown in March. This will also support the jobs of people whose employment relies on custom from the property industry, such as retailers and tradespeople.
The Government will continue to monitor the market. However, as the relief was designed to provide an immediate stimulus to the property market, the Government does not plan to extend this relief or change the point at which a transaction is eligible to receive the relief.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there are plans to provide a more tailored package of support for pubs and brewers during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government has moved to support pubs and brewers through its unprecedented coronavirus economic response, in common with action to support other parts of the hospitality industry. This includes the job support scheme, job retention bonus, business rates holiday, VAT deferral and repayment scheme and the bounce back loans scheme. The Government believes that these economy-wide measures are the quickest and fairest way of supporting these important sectors.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of backdating the reduction in stamp duty to the start of the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The SDLT relief is intended to encourage confidence in the property market and support the wider economy. Backdating the SDLT relief retrospectively would not support this aim, and would inevitably lead to borderline cases for purchases completed at an earlier point.