Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of adoptive parents who waited more than three months for their application for child benefit to be approved in 2022.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
While information is collected on birth child, adopted child and stepchild as part of the Child Benefit claim form, this information is not made available to HMRC for statistical analysis, and therefore the data cannot be used to categorize children/claims into adopted children.
HMRC do have a “where’s my reply Tool” Check-when-you-can-expect-a-reply-from-HMRC which shows general processing time frames when customers have submitted a Child Benefit claim.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of adoptive parents who waited more than four months for their child benefit application to be approved in 2022.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
While information is collected on birth child, adopted child and stepchild as part of the Child Benefit claim form, this information is not made available to HMRC for statistical analysis, and therefore the data cannot be used to categorize children/claims into adopted children.
HMRC do have a “where’s my reply Tool” Check-when-you-can-expect-a-reply-from-HMRC which shows general processing time frames when customers have submitted a Child Benefit claim.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of adoptive parents who waited more than two months their application for child benefit to be approved in 2022.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
While information is collected on birth child, adopted child and stepchild as part of the Child Benefit claim form, this information is not made available to HMRC for statistical analysis, and therefore the data cannot be used to categorize children/claims into adopted children.
HMRC do have a “where’s my reply Tool” Check-when-you-can-expect-a-reply-from-HMRC which shows general processing time frames when customers have submitted a Child Benefit claim.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of adoptive parents who waited more than six months for their application for child benefit to be approved in 2022.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
While information is collected on birth child, adopted child and stepchild as part of the Child Benefit claim form, this information is not made available to HMRC for statistical analysis, and therefore the data cannot be used to categorize children/claims into adopted children.
HMRC do have a “where’s my reply Tool” Check-when-you-can-expect-a-reply-from-HMRC which shows general processing time frames when customers have submitted a Child Benefit claim.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of removing the three month limit on backdated payments for child benefit.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Where no one has claimed Child Benefit, the government allows claims to be backdated three months. Three months backdating is already more generous than most other social security benefits. A more generous backdating would make it harder to verify evidence and establish entitlement since entitlement to Child Benefit relies upon being responsible for a child each week. For this reason, the government believes that the three-month backdating period for Child Benefit is a fair and reasonable time in which to allow those wishing to claim Child Benefit to do so.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to provide ringfenced funding to (a) local authorities and (b) integrated care systems for suicide prevention services at the Autumn Statement.
Answered by John Glen
Government is committed to mental health support and suicide prevention. In September, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published the new Suicide prevention strategy for England and launched the Suicide Prevention Grant Fund which makes available £10 million from 2023 to 2025 to support suicide prevention. It is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs) to plan services to meet the needs of their communities, including deciding how much funding they provide for mental health services.
It would not be appropriate to comment on the content of the 2023 Autumn Statement at this time.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of HMRC's communication policy on late filing penalties issued to self-employed people on incomes lower than the Personal Allowance; and whether HMRC is taking steps to reduce the number of such fines.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC issues SA tax returns to customers when the information they hold suggests that the customer meets the published criteria for completing one. HMRC often cannot determine someone’s tax liability until they have sent in a tax return, therefore they need the return to establish whether there is tax due or not.
Even where a customer has no income, or does not owe tax they may still need to file a return e.g. to pay voluntary Class 2 National Insurance or to support claims for Maternity allowance or Tax Free Childcare.
HMRC charges late final penalties to encourage customers to file on time but they can cancel a customer’s late filing penalty if they have a reasonable excuse. Customers can also ask HMRC to remove them from the SA process for future years if they no longer meet the criteria.
HMRC is currently reforming late payment and late filing penalties. Their aim is to encourage those who persistently default to comply with their tax obligations rather than penalise those who make occasional errors.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to end the issuing of late filing penalties to self-employed people with incomes below the personal allowance.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC issues SA tax returns to customers when the information they hold suggests that the customer meets the published criteria for completing one. HMRC often cannot determine someone’s tax liability until they have sent in a tax return, therefore they need the return to establish whether there is tax due or not.
HMRC charges late final penalties to encourage customers to file on time but they can cancel a customer’s late filing penalty if they have a reasonable excuse. Customers can also ask HMRC to remove them from the SA process for future years if they no longer meet the criteria.
HMRC is currently reforming late payment and late filing penalties. Their aim is to encourage those who persistently default to comply with their tax obligations rather than penalise those who make occasional errors.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of issuing late filing penalties on self-employed people with incomes below the personal allowance, in the context of increases in the cost of living.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC issues SA tax returns to customers when the information they hold suggests that the customer meets the published criteria for completing one. HMRC often cannot determine someone’s tax liability until they have sent in a tax return, therefore they need the return to establish whether there is tax due or not.
HMRC charges late final penalties to encourage customers to file on time but they can cancel a customer’s late filing penalty if they have a reasonable excuse. Customers can also ask HMRC to remove them from the SA process for future years if they no longer meet the criteria.
HMRC is currently reforming late payment and late filing penalties. Their aim is to encourage those who persistently default to comply with their tax obligations rather than penalise those who make occasional errors.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will hold discussions with the Minister of State for Education on the potential merits of exempting (a) colleges and (b) other further education organisations from VAT.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Many colleges and further education organisations qualify as eligible bodies so already benefit from a VAT exemption as their supplies of education are free from VAT. Whilst there are no plans to make changes to the VAT treatment of FE colleges, the Government does keep the tax system under constant review.