Lockdown: Economic Support Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Lockdown: Economic Support

Justin Madders Excerpts
Tuesday 3rd November 2020

(3 years, 6 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Steve Barclay Portrait Steve Barclay
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As I said earlier, these are UK-wide schemes. We continue to listen and engage, but the schemes apply on a UK-wide basis. That has been the case throughout, and that continues to be the case now.

Justin Madders Portrait Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)
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I am sure that we have all heard heartbreaking stories about people who have been unable to claim for self-employment support because they had not registered or submitted a tax return for 2018-19. It seems that those people are still excluded from any support. Some of them have been trading for 18 months now. They are clearly not fraudulent and they clearly deserve some support; why cannot they get some?

Steve Barclay Portrait Steve Barclay
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As we referred to earlier, the point is that the package of support includes the £9 billion of welfare measures and the support that is available through local authorities and targeted at their discretion. I have also set out that there are those within that excluded population, for example those who were employed, who may be able to qualify for the extension, but for the reasons that we have covered in a number of earlier replies, part of the challenge from the Public Accounts Committee has been ensuring that we have the right operational controls in place, and that has been one of the difficulties with the cohorts to which the hon. Gentleman refers.