Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, how many and what proportion of the employers that will see a change in their employer National Insurance have (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four and (e) more than five employees.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:
The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, how many and what proportion of the half of employers that will see no change have (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four and (e) more than five employees.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:
The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, how many and what proportion of the 865,000 employers listed have (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four and (e) more than five employees.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:
The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, if she will provide disaggregated cost figures for the hospitality sector for the same period of time.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:
The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, if she will provide disaggregated cost figures for the retail sector for the same period.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:
The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department offers its staff shared parental leave from their first working day.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMT staff must have worked continuously for the Civil Service for at least 26 weeks to be eligible for shared parental leave and pay. Staff can also take unpaid parental leave in addition to shared parental leave if they meet the eligibility criteria.
The Employment Rights Bill will remove this eligibility requirement and staff will be entitled to unpaid parental leave from their first working day. HMT will implement this legislative change when it comes into force.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to line 26 on page 118 of the Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, if she will disaggregate the measures of (a) changing the Secondary Threshold to £5,000 and (b) increasing the employer National Insurance rate by 1.2% for each financial year to 2029-30.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The static revenue of increasing the Employer National Insurance rate from 13.8% to 15%, and reducing the Secondary Threshold to a £5,000 annual equivalent are set out below.
(£m) | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 | 2029-30 |
Revenue from increasing the Employer NIC rate from 13.8% to 15% | 11,105 | 11,440 | 11,770 | 12,080 | 12,440 |
Revenue from reducing the Secondary Threshold to £5,000 | 17,230 | 17,350 | 17,460 | 18,040 | 18,600 |
This is a subset of the static costing published in table 5.1 of the HMT Budget documents, and table 3.2 of the OBR Economic and Fiscal Outlook, October 2024, and does not account for direct or indirect effects from the wider package. The cost of increasing the rate is calculated before any other parts of the announced package of Employer NIC changes have been calculated – and so assumes the Secondary Threshold and Employment Allowance remain unchanged. The cost of reducing the Secondary Threshold accounts for the higher rate of Employer NICs, but does not account for changes to the Employment Allowance.
In addition to the changes outlined above, the Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all next year, more than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package, and all eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information she holds on the number of people who have taken advantage of the ability to remove £500 from their pension scheme to pay for financial advice in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We do not hold the information requested. Neither schemes nor individuals are required to provide HMRC with this information.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on the (a) number of family businesses and (b) employment levels within those businesses.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government inherited a difficult fiscal situation and so we are asking businesses to contribute to fixing the foundations and our public services. As part of the decisions made at Budget, the Government assessed the impact of measures introduced on businesses, including by size of business.
The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500.
The Government also announced changes to inheritance tax, including reforms to business property relief (BPR). The Government has protected smaller family businesses from BPR changes, providing a very significant level of relief with the first £1 million of business assets continuing to receive 100% relief and then 50% thereafter. In 2021-22, the median value of assets qualifying for business property relief was £200,000, and 87 per cent of estates claimed for business property below £1 million.
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s October 2024 forecast, which takes into account impacts from policy measures announced in the Budget, expects the employment level to increase from 33.1 million in 2024 to 34.3 million in 2029.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to point 28 of Table 5.1 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, whether unmarried couples will be liable for inheritance tax on Death-in-Service benefits over £325,000 payable on a death before retirement age.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As announced at Autumn Budget 2024, from 6 April 2027 most unused pension funds and death benefits will be included within the value of a person’s estate for Inheritance Tax purposes.
The inheritance tax treatment of death-in-service depends on where the relevant funds are held and how they are paid out. Some types of schemes make death-in-service payments from a group life insurance policy held in trust and therefore not within the scope on that basis. Whilst other (often defined benefit) schemes will make death in service payments as a pension lump sum, which will be in scope.
This change will ensure that there is consistent tax treatment, regardless of whether the scheme is discretionary or non-discretionary. For example, benefits from non-discretionary defined benefit schemes, such as the NHS, are already within the scope of inheritance tax.
All estates have a minimum nil-rate band of £325,000. In addition to this, an estate may qualify for up to £175,000 of residence nil-rate band, where the deceased is passing on a qualifying residence to their direct descendants. This means that qualifying estate can pass on up to £500,000 before any Inheritance Tax will be due, regardless of whether the deceased was married or unmarried when they died.