Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what financial support is available for self-employed taxi drivers who have been told by NHS England to self-isolate due to underlying health reasons and who have been told that they do not qualify for bounce back loans because they do not have business bank accounts.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The government is committed to supporting self-employed individuals through any period in which they have to self-isolate. Self-employed individuals may be eligible for “new style” Contributory Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) if they are incapable of work due to Covid-19, including those who are required to self-isolate according to Government guidance. We have made it easier for people to claim new style ESA by removing the seven-day waiting period which means people can get support from day one. If they are on a low-income, they may also be entitled to a £500 self-isolation payment.
Individuals who are self-isolating can also access the wider support which the government has made available to self-employed people. In addition to bounce back loans, self-employed individuals may be eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) which remains open for applications and has recently been extended. The SEISS Grant Extension will last for 6 months, from November 2020 to April 2021.
This support for the self-employed is in addition to a comprehensive welfare offer: according to OBR estimates, the government has injected a further £9.3bn into the welfare system to support individuals who are unable to work or on a low income, including the self-employed. For those on low incomes, the government has relaxed the UC minimum income floor for all self-employed claimants.
The Government launched Bounce Back Loans on 4th May 2020 to ensure that the smallest businesses can access loans of up to £50,000 in a matter of days. However, decisions regarding which products, like business bank accounts, to offer remain at the discretion of lenders, and the Government does not intervene in these decisions.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many loan charge settlements were (a) offered and (b) agreed during July, August and September 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC do not hold aggregate data on when individual taxpayers were issued with settlement offers.
HMRC are currently compiling, analysing and assuring settlement data up to 30 September 2020. HMRC plan to report the number of agreed settlements when they publish their report on how they have implemented the Loan Charge changes following the Independent Loan Charge Review, later this year.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many HMRC staff were allocated to Loan Charge counter-avoidance activities in (a) July, (b) August and (c) September 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In July, August, and September 2020, HMRC had about 1,000 staff working to help taxpayers affected by the Loan Charge to settle their use of disguised remuneration tax avoidance schemes.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the financial effect on working tax credits received by health and social care workers of additional hours that have been worked during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Tax Credit system has a degree of flexibility built in, in order to help claimants manage changes in income. The Tax Credit disregard means that the first £2,500 of a increase or decrease in household income, compared with the previous tax year is disregarded. Therefore carers, NHS staff and other key workers working additional hours and experiencing an increase in income of up to £2,500 per year will see no change in their overall Tax Credit award.
The Government also recognises that Tax Credits were introduced in the early 2000s and no longer fully reflect the world of work for many people. That is why we are introducing Universal Credit.
Universal Credit replaces Tax Credits and other legacy benefits, to provide a single system of means-tested support for working age people. Universal Credit is assessed and paid monthly and is based on claimants’ actual earnings in the month, rather than their annual income.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of whether companies have paid dividends while in receipt of the Government's covid-19 support packages.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Government support is aimed at businesses in genuine need. Our current measures are well-targeted at such businesses, bearing in mind the need to act very quickly to deliver this unprecedented package. We expect everyone to act responsibly and in the spirit of the package, and only claim and use support as intended. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) for example provides compensation for the cost of paying furloughed workers –money that goes directly to the pockets of workers who might otherwise lose their jobs, whilst Business Rates reductions and Local Authority grant schemes are targeted at sectors which are facing severe hardship. The Government is keeping all measures under constant review.
Companies borrowing more than £50million through the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) or accessing the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) beyond 19 May 2021, face restrictions on dividend payments, capital distributions and senior pay.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average time taken was for goods to clear customs (a) entering and (b) leaving the UK in each month in 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
95% of Import Frontier Declarations and 99% of Export Declarations receive clearance from customs in 10 minutes. The 10 minutes relate to a trade facilitation time agreed by HMRC to enable traders to be able to amend their declarations within this 10-minute period, before clearance is granted.
The remaining 5% for Imports and 1% for Exports are accounted for by Declarations that are held in order to perform Documentary or Physical Controls on the goods or to deal with other matters such as the collection of revenue.