Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has a contract with Bounty to distribute child benefit forms to new parents on NHS wards.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
HMRC does not have a direct contract with Bounty, however they are a sub-contractor of HMRC’s print provider Communisis. The child benefit forms are printed and provided to Bounty for inclusion in their packs and distributed to new parents on NHS wards.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many new parents received bounty packs with paperwork containing information on applying for child benefit in Birkenhead in (a) 2016-17 and (b) 2017-18.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
HMRC does not hold this information.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the membership of the committee that recommended the appointment of Bradley Fried to the position of Chair of the Court of the Bank of England.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Advisory Assessment Panel in this appointment process consisted of Tom Scholar (Permanent Secretary - HM Treasury), Charles Roxburgh (2nd Permanent Secretary - HM Treasury), Diana ‘Dido’ Harding (Non-Executive Director – Bank of England) and Lynne Peacock (Non-Executive Director – Nationwide Building Society). Details of the panel were made publicly available online at gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exechequer, how many new parents received bounty packs with paperwork containing information on applying for child benefit in 2016-17.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
In the period from the beginning of April 2016 to end March 2017 HMRC distributed a total of 743,733 packs.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made on the roll-out of the breathing space policy in relation to problem debt.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The government is currently undertaking a detailed policy design process on breathing space, working in close conjunction with stakeholders. Based on this work, as well as responses received to a recent Call for Evidence, the government will consult on a single policy proposal on the scheme later this summer.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax credit claimants whose claims were wrongly suspended by Concentrix in previous tax years have since similarly had their claims wrongly suspended for the same reasons by HMRC.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold the information requested.
HMRC has learned lessons from the Concentrix contract, taking on board the Work & Pensions Select Committee recommendations and introducing a number of changes to its compliance processes. Before implementing these changes, HMRC tested them with external stakeholders, who endorsed the revised approach. The changes ensure that HMRC carries out tax credits checks in a way that is fair and treats claimants with respect. The changes focus on improving contact with claimants, providing greater levels of support and making it easier for claimants to provide information through multiple channels.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what forecast he has made of the tax revenues to be raised by the Government's anti-avoidance provisions in relation to multi-national tech companies due to be introduced in 2019.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
At Autumn Budget 2017, the Government announced an extension of UK withholding tax on royalty payments made to low or no tax jurisdictions.
This measure is another step towards the Government’s longer term ambition of domestic and international reform of the taxation of digital businesses. Whilst this measure will predominantly affect digital businesses, it may also affect groups operating in other sectors.
As announced at the Budget, this measure is forecast to raise £800m over four years.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of HMRC's local measure of child poverty.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given on 8 March 2018 in response to question 130804.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether HMRC has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a reliable mechanism which (a) makes clear the whereabouts of important documentation relating to tax credit claims, (b) acknowledges the submission of online renewals and (c) does not suspend payments until it can be proved that claimants have received and then failed to respond appropriately to the necessary paperwork.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
I refer the Rt. Hon Gentleman to the answer my predecessor gave him on 12th September 2017 (Hansard 7488).
HMRC has processes in place for handling and scanning important documents and cherished items. The department endeavours to return such items but cannot legislate for documentation that is not accompanied by a covering letter or form that enables HMRC to identify the sender.
In addition to the automated acknowledgements referred to in the previous answer, HMRC has introduced an online service that enables customers to track the progress of their tax credits renewal online through their Personal Tax Account. HMRC send tax credits customers their renewal packs between mid-April and the mid-June each year. These are followed by a series of reminders and an extensive advertising and social media campaign to encourage customers to renew on time.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) direct employees, (b) agency staff and (c) outsourced staff working for (i) his Department and (ii) agencies of his Department are paid less than the living wage, as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
HM Treasury and its ALBs do not pay any employees or agency workers, under the Living Wage, as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.
HM Treasury does not hold information on wages paid by our suppliers.