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Written Question
Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an equality impact assessment of the decision to close the HMRC helpline between April and September each year.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC conducted a full Equalities Impact Assessment regarding the planned closure of the Self Assessment helpline between 8 April and 30 September 2024. However, HMRC has halted this plan while it engages with stakeholders about how to ensure all taxpayers’ needs are met as the Department shifts more people to online self-service.


Written Question
Individual Savings Accounts: First Time Buyers
Tuesday 9th January 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the penalty charge to 20% for people (a) with Lifetime ISAs and (b) whose first property costs more than £450,000.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to supporting people of all incomes and at all stages of life to save, and to making the aspiration of home ownership a reality for as many households as possible.

The Lifetime ISA is intended to support younger people saving for their first home or for later life by offering a generous government bonus of 25% on up to £4,000 of savings each year. These funds, including the government bonus, can be used to purchase a first home up to the value of £450,000.

The Government remains of the view that the property price cap is set at an appropriate level to support most first-time buyers across the UK while targeting households that may find it most difficult to get onto the property ladder. The withdrawal charge is needed to protect the LISA’s status as a long-term savings product. Reducing this and would encourage the use of LISAs in ways for which they were not intended.

The Government does not undertake an assessment of the effectiveness of the LISA by region, however the Government regularly publishes annual savings statistics, which includes information on the LISA. (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2022)

The Government will continue to keep all aspects of savings tax policy under review and considers all representations made carefully, with any changes made as part of the Budget process.


Written Question
Individual Savings Accounts: First Time Buyers
Tuesday 9th January 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Lifetime ISAs for helping first-time buyers in London.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to supporting people of all incomes and at all stages of life to save, and to making the aspiration of home ownership a reality for as many households as possible.

The Lifetime ISA is intended to support younger people saving for their first home or for later life by offering a generous government bonus of 25% on up to £4,000 of savings each year. These funds, including the government bonus, can be used to purchase a first home up to the value of £450,000.

The Government remains of the view that the property price cap is set at an appropriate level to support most first-time buyers across the UK while targeting households that may find it most difficult to get onto the property ladder. The withdrawal charge is needed to protect the LISA’s status as a long-term savings product. Reducing this and would encourage the use of LISAs in ways for which they were not intended.

The Government does not undertake an assessment of the effectiveness of the LISA by region, however the Government regularly publishes annual savings statistics, which includes information on the LISA. (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2022)

The Government will continue to keep all aspects of savings tax policy under review and considers all representations made carefully, with any changes made as part of the Budget process.


Written Question
Sanctions: Myanmar
Tuesday 12th September 2023

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the total sum of assets frozen under the Myanmar sanctions regime.

Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) undertakes an annual review of assets frozen as a result of UK financial sanctions, requiring all persons or institutions that hold or control frozen assets in the UK to report to OFSI.

Details of assets reported to OFSI as part of the 2021 frozen asset review were published in OFSI’s 2021-2022 Annual Review. As of September 2021, £12.4 billion of frozen funds across all regimes were reported to be held by UK institutions. The value of assets held in relation to the Myanmar regime is aggregated under ‘Others’ so as not to disclose the value of funds held by particular individuals.

Details of assets reported to OFSI in 2022 will be published in OFSI’s 2022-2023 Annual Review, in Autumn 2023.


Written Question
Money and Pensions Service
Monday 11th September 2023

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of capacity of debt advice services funded through the Money and Pensions Service to meet demand.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government recognises the vital role that advice services play in helping people in problem debt and vulnerable circumstances.

To help people in problem debt, the Government continues to maintain record levels of funding for free-to-client debt advice in England, bringing the 2023-24 debt advice funding for the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) to over £92 million. MaPS expect to serve over 500,000 clients with debt advice this year. Further information can be found in MaPS’ 2023-24 corporate plan: https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/corporate-strategy-and-plan/

MaPS carry out an annual Debt Need survey to assess the proportion of the population which would benefit from debt advice, based on their financial circumstances. The latest results from the 2022 survey can be found here: https://maps.org.uk/2023/01/25/need-for-debt-advice-and-how-households-are-reacting-to-changes-in-the-cost-of-living/.


Written Question
Credit
Wednesday 26th July 2023

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of access to lower cost credit through (a) credit unions, (b) Community Development Finance Institution and (c) other community lenders.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government believes that credit, when provided responsibly and affordably, can be a useful financial tool to smooth income and manage unexpected costs, and that there is a strong case for building the provision of such credit, particularly for underserved groups. The government is committed to taking steps to widen access to affordable credit, including by credit unions and community development finance institutions (CDFIs), and is overseeing a number of initiatives to support this goal.

Since 2019, the government has made £100 million of dormant assets funding available to Fair4All Finance to support their work on financial inclusion, and an additional £45 million for initiatives to tackle the elevated cost of living. This includes a package of tailored support to sustainably supporting the resilience of the credit union and CDFI sectors and scale affordable credit to serve people in vulnerable circumstances.

The government has provided Fair4AllFinance with £3.8m of funding to pilot a No-interest Loans Scheme, designed for consumers in vulnerable circumstances who would benefit from affordable rather than high-cost credit. Fair4All Finance are partnering with a range of lenders to deliver this pilot, including community lenders.

As part of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the government has also amended existing legislation so that credit unions in Great Britain can offer a wider range of products and services. This will help allow credit unions to grow sustainably and support their role as providers of affordable consumer credit.


Written Question
Mortgages: Hornsey and Wood Green
Monday 22nd May 2023

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of trends in the numbers of households in Hornsey & Wood Green constituency that have fallen into arrears with their mortgage payments in the last (a) six and (b) 12 months.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Mortgage arrears nationally remain at historically low levels for the last six and twelve months.

Where mortgage borrowers do fall in financial difficulty, Financial Conduct Authority guidance requires firms to offer tailored support. This could include a range of measures depending on individual circumstances.

The Government has also taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans for those in receipt of an income-related benefit, and protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol, which makes it clear that repossession must always be the last resort for lenders.


Written Question
Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services
Thursday 27th April 2023

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to improve the call answer rates for HMRC helplines.

Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

HMRC is working to improve call answer rates, primarily through supporting customers who can use digital services to do so in the first instance. This will reduce call numbers and allow HMRC to focus their telephone support on those with more complex circumstances, or who are unable to engage digitally.

HMRC are also deploying additional temporary resource to answer customer correspondence from April to September 2023. Answering correspondence more quickly reduces the number of progress-chasing calls, and therefore can further improve call answer rates.


Written Question
Mortgages: Travellers
Friday 31st March 2023

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of discrimination against the proximity of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller sites by mortgage providers.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The pricing and availability of mortgages – including those being taken out on properties situated close to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller sites – is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene.


Written Question
Credit Unions: Regulation
Tuesday 14th March 2023

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the policy statement by the Prudential Regulation Authority entitled CP7/22 – Credit Unions: Changes to the Regulatory Regime, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the restrictions to capital investment in credit unions set out in that paper on trends in the levels of growth in the credit union sector.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is an independent, non-governmental body responsible for regulating and supervising the financial services industry, including credit unions. Although the Treasury sets the legal framework for the regulation of credit unions, it has limited powers in relation to the PRA’s decision-making processes, including any proposed changes as part of their sectoral consultation work.

Regulators are obligated to provide a cost benefit analysis on any proposed changes and an estimate of those costs and benefits if reasonable. This consultation paper includes a cost-benefit analysis; the PRA estimates that any costs are, overall, proportionate to the additional risks involved.

The Government is a strong supporter of the mutuals sector and recognises the unique role credit unions play in their communities, providing savings and affordable loans to their members. As part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill, the Government is bringing forward changes to the Credit Unions Act 1979 to allow credit unions to offer a wider range of products and services. This will allow credit unions to continue to grow sustainably in the future and support them in the vital role they play in financial inclusion.