Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the level of funding for dementia care.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Dementia care is supported by both NHS and adult social care funding. As part of the NHS’s cash increase of £33.9bn a year by 2023-24 and outlined in their long-term plan, the NHS will provide better support for people with dementia through a more active focus on supporting people in the community. And over three years (2017-18 to 2019-20) we have given councils access to up to around £10bn more dedicated funding for adult social care.
The Spending Review represents an opportunity to consider public spending priorities in the round, and the Treasury will be working closely with departments on funding issues, and with a renewed focus on delivering outcomes.
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of ministerial discussions are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of changes in the level of funding for children’s services on (a) schools, (b) the police and (c) the NHS.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Local authorities have access to over £200bn to deliver services, including children’s services, between 2015 and 2020. Local government core spending power will increase in real terms next year.
At Budget 2018 we announced an additional £410m next year for adults and children’s social care, and £84m to support local authorities to expand programmes for children and families that have shown reduced costs to the police and the NHS.
We expect local authorities to continue to work closely with partner agencies to support and protect children in their area.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer , what support his Department provides to UK businesses preparing and completing (a) import and (b) export declarations.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Delivering a deal negotiated with the EU remains the Government’s top priority. However in the event of a ‘no deal’ businesses who trade with the EU will be subject to customs controls in the same way as businesses who are trading with the rest of the world. To help businesses make this transition, a number of temporary easements have been put in place which will help businesses make this transition.
HMRC continues to proactively support businesses to meet their customs obligations engaging with a broad range of UK businesses and associations. Extensive guidance is available on gov.uk. HMRC has already written to 145,000 VAT registered EU businesses and 77,000 traders who trade with non-EU countries, to explain the steps they need to take to ahead of making import/export declarations. In addition, HMRC are actively engaged with a range of associations, small business trade bodies and intermediaries to help them prepare their members for any new customs obligations.
Further support is available from customs intermediaries. HMRC wrote to businesses in February to explain what steps businesses should take, including how to make customs declarations themselves or via an intermediary. An £8 million investment has been made available to support intermediary training and increased automation.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to support Talk Money Week which takes place from 12 to 18 November as part of the Financial Capability Strategy for the UK.
Answered by John Glen
HM Treasury works closely with the Money Advice (MAS), the main organisers of Talk Money Week, on debt advice, financial capability and financial education policy. The Government strongly supports Talk Money Week and I provided the keynote speech at the Talk Money Conference on 14th November.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that people receive prompt responses from HMRC caseworkers on (a) inheritance tax payments and (b) other matters.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Since 6 April 2018, 95.65% of new Inheritance Tax accounts submitted to HMRC are processed within 15 working days. This enables the customer to obtain Grant of Representation.
In April 2018, HMRC changed its account handling process in response to customer feedback. Now, if a compliance check is required, HMRC will write to the customer and provide them with a timeline and a date indicating how long the check will take.
For the week ending 31 August 2018, HMRC responded to 66.38% of inheritance tax post within 15 working days. In order to bring performance in line with the target of responding to 80% of post within 15 working days, additional resource has been deployed.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average amount of time is for a person to receive a response from HMRC caseworkers for queries on (a) inheritance tax payments and (b) other subjects; and whether his Department has any target times for such responses to be sent.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
HMRC aims to respond to 80% of correspondence within 15 working days and answer telephone calls within an average time of 5 minutes.
Since 6 April 2018, 95.65% of new Inheritance Tax accounts submitted to HMRC are processed within 15 working days. This enables the customer to obtain Grant of Representation.
If compliance checks are required, then HMRC will write to the customer and provide them with a timeline and a date indicating how long the checks will take.
For the week ending 31 August 2018, HMRC responded to 66.38% of inheritance tax post within 15 working days. We answered the phone within an average of 5 minutes
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on changes in the level of funding for adult social care since 2010.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
In line with the practice of successive administrations, the details of ministerial discussions are not normally discussed. Adult social care funding will be discussed during the forthcoming 2019 Spending Review.
Councils have access to £9.4 billion more dedicated funding for social care between 17/18 and 19/20 as a result of measures introduced since 2015. The government will also publish a Green Paper on social care by autumn 2018.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on funding for the NHS.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
At the last Spending Review the Government funded the NHS’s Five Year Forward View plan, with a settlement that provided a £10 billion a year real terms increase to the NHS’s budget by 2020-21.
Even with that significant investment, we recognise that the NHS remains under pressure – with high demand on its services caused by the UK’s ageing population and rapidly advancing technology. That is why we have committed £10 billion of additional funding for the NHS at the Budget and since. This includes making available over £4 billion for a new pay deal for the 1.2 million NHS staff on the Agenda for Change contract, in return for wider reform.
In terms of next steps – as the Prime Minister set out recently at the Liaison Committee, we will come forward this year with a long-term plan for the NHS, and provide a new multi-year funding settlement in support of this plan – consistent with our fiscal rules and balanced approach – ahead of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what (a) consultation, (b) decision-making process and (c) timetable he plans for deciding the final rules for the Government's Lifetime Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) scheme; and whether he plans to conduct a consultation on what life events in addition to the purchase of a first home will be eligible for penalty-free withdrawal of such investments before the age of 60.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Following the Budget, the Government has engaged with industry on the detailed design of the Lifetime ISA, including on penalty-free withdrawals.
The Queen’s Speech for the 2016-17 session announced the Government’s intention to legislate for the Lifetime ISA. The legislation which will enact this measure will be introduced to Parliament in due course.
The Government will continue to talk to industry and interested parties about the Lifetime ISA while the Bill is being considered by the House, leading up to its planned launch.