Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the benefit freeze will be lifted in 2020.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Government has no intention of repeating or prolonging the current freeze on working age benefits. From 2020, the Government expects increases in benefits will resume in line with CPI.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many households with no one in work receive the (a) disabled child element and (b) the disabled child element but not the severely disabled child element in their child tax credit.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
As at December 2018 there were 176,000 out-of-work families receiving the disabled child element, of which 101,000 were not also receiving the severely disabled child element.
There were 121,000 out-of-work single adult families receiving the disabled child element, of which 71,000 were not also receiving the severely disabled child element.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many single parents who are not in work receive (a) the disabled child element and (b) the disabled child element but not the severely disabled child element in their child tax credit.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
As at December 2018 there were 176,000 out-of-work families receiving the disabled child element, of which 101,000 were not also receiving the severely disabled child element.
There were 121,000 out-of-work single adult families receiving the disabled child element, of which 71,000 were not also receiving the severely disabled child element.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Government’s response to recommendation 59(b) in its follow up report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ Concluding Observations, what supporting evidence the Government has that a cumulative impact assessment of its welfare reforms cannot be reliably modelled.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The government carefully considers the impact of its decisions on those sharing protected characteristics, in line with both its legal obligations and with its strong commitment to promoting fairness. The government supports people with disabilities through both the welfare system and through public services. We spend over £50bn on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions which accounts for over 6% of Government spending. Spending on disability benefits will be higher every year to 2022 than in 2010.
Since 2010, the Treasury has regularly published cumulative analysis of the impacts of tax, welfare and public spending policies on households according to their income. However, this analysis has not been produced specifically for those with disabilities as the full impacts on these households of all public spending such as on health, transport and other non-financial support cannot be reliably modelled with the data which is currently available.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department are taking to fix technical problems with HMRC's tax-free childcare system.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
More than 325,000 parents have a live childcare account and are using the childcare service to access government support with childcare.HMRC have delivered a range of improvements and continue to improve the service based on customer feedback. Fewer customers see error screens and the vast majority of customers receive an eligibility response within five working days, if not instantly. They have also recruited more staff to work on the childcare service helpline, to improve the service for customers who need to contact them by telephone.