Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a Jubilee Fund to provide grants to pay off and cancel unavoidable debt accrued by the poorest households during the covid-19 lockdown period.
Answered by John Glen
The Government has put in place an unprecedented package of support to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting livelihoods with the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and temporary welfare measures.
The Government has also worked with mortgage lenders, credit providers and the Financial Conduct Authority to help people manage their finances with payment holidays, and has taken unprecedented action to support renters, ensuring that no-one has been forced from their home during lockdown.
However, the Government recognises that the full impact of COVID19 on people’s personal finances is still unfolding and that some are struggling at this challenging time. To help people in problem debt get their finances back on track, the Government has agreed to maintain record levels of debt advice funding for the Money and Pension Service in 2021-22, bringing the budget for free debt advice in England to £94.6 million. This is more than a 70% increase since 2019-20 and reflects the Government’s commitment to ensure that appropriate support is available for people in problem debt; enabling an additional 1 million people in England to get free-to-client debt advice.
In addition to this, the Breathing Space scheme has now been launched in England and Wales. The scheme will offer people in problem debt a pause of up to 60 days on most enforcement action, interest, fees and charges, and will encourage them to seek professional debt advice.
The Government regularly engages with a wide range of stakeholders to assess the merits of new policy proposals and ideas. A key consideration for the Government is that it is keen to ensure it is fair to people who pay their bills on time, whilst taking a supportive but proportionate approach to those who are not able to. The Government believes that a Jubilee fund to provide grants to write-off debts accrued as a result of COVID-19 would not be a proportionate solution that delivers this fairness.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will provide urgent financial support to taxi drivers at risk of having their vehicle repossessed.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The government has provided an unprecedented package of support for individuals through the pandemic. The majority of taxi drivers are self-employed and so may have been able to benefit from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), which was extended at Budget, through a fourth and fifth grant, until September.
Taxi drivers are amongst the 1.5 million businesses that have accessed the Bounce Back Loan scheme over the past 11 months, which has provided facilities totalling £46.5billion. Taxi drivers experiencing hardship can also apply to the Recovery Loan Scheme, launched earlier this month, which maintains a generous 80% guarantee to ensure lenders continue to have the confidence to lend.
Beyond these schemes, taxi drivers may be able to access other elements of support, including continuation of the uplift in Universal Credit, rental support, mortgage holidays, enhanced Time to Pay for taxes, VAT cuts and deferrals, and other business support grants. At the budget, an extra £425 million business grant funding was announced, on top of the £1.6 billion already allocated, for local authorities to use at their discretion to support local businesses not eligible for Restart Grants, but nonetheless experiencing severe impacts on their business. The taxi and private hire sector may be able to benefit from these recently extended schemes.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will announce a long term funding settlement for fire and rescue services in Budget 2021.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The 2020 Spending Review increased funding for fire services across local authorities in line with inflation, building on the 2019 Spending Round where standalone Fire and Rescue Services (FRAs) received an increase in their core spending power of 3.2 per cent in cash terms. We will consider long-term funding for fire and rescue services at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what level of financial support he has allocated to Bolton in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
Throughout this crisis, the government has sought to protect people’s jobs and livelihoods while also supporting businesses and public services across the UK, including in Bolton. To do this, the government has put in place an economic package of support which will provide businesses and individuals with certainty over the coming months, even as measures to prevent further spread of the virus change. The government has spent over £280 billion this year to provide this support.
Businesses in Bolton which are forced to close can claim grants of up to £3,000 per month, based on their rateable value, through the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed). They can also claim a one-off grant of up to £9,000, in addition to the monthly grant. Businesses in Bolton which are not able to receive these grants for closed businesses may be able to benefit from the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). We recently increased the funding available under this scheme to £1.6 billion across England. It is up to each local authority to determine eligibility for this scheme based on their assessment of local economic need; however, we encourage local authorities to support businesses which have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, but which are ineligible for the other grant schemes.
In addition to funding for these grant schemes, local authorities in Bolton which were subject to enhanced restrictions on socialising (such as a ban on indoor household mixing) between 1 August and 5 November, and between 2 December and 5 January, will have received funding from the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) scheme to enable them to make backdated grants to hospitality, leisure, and accommodation businesses worth 70% of the monthly grants for closed businesses.
Businesses are also able to access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which was introduced to help employers whose operations have been affected by COVID-19 retain their employees and protect the UK economy. All businesses across the UK can access the scheme, which will run until the end of April 2021, with employees receiving 80% of their usual salary for hours not worked, up to £2,500 per month. As at 31 December, provisional statistics show that there were about 15,300 employments furloughed in Bolton North East, Bolton South East, and Bolton West, representing a roughly 12% takeup rate among eligible employments.
Businesses across the UK have also received billions in loans, tax deferrals, Business Rates relief, and general and sector-specific grants. Individuals and families have benefited from increased welfare payments, enhanced Statutory Sick Pay, a stay on repossession proceedings and mortgage holidays.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help protect homeowners who have exhausted the six-month mortgage payment holiday from having their homes repossessed.
Answered by John Glen
For borrowers that have already taken a full six months payment holiday and who continue to face ongoing financial difficulties, the FCA’s guidance sets out that firms should continue to provide support through tailored forbearance options. This could include granting new mortgage payment holidays. As part of this guidance any forbearance granted beyond six months of payment holidays will be reflected on the consumer’s credit file in the usual manner. As borrowers still requiring assistance after that point could be in serious financial distress the FCA believe it is right that lenders are able to understand their financial position in order to lend responsibly.
We understand this remains an uncertain time, and to reassure homeowners the period that lenders cannot repossess homes for has been extended. The FCA’s guidance released on 17 November sets out that lenders cannot issue a warrant for repossession until after 31 January 2021.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2020 to Question 91828, whether he has made an estimate of the number and proportion of PAYE freelancers who are currently contracted by public service broadcasters who have not been granted furlough by their employer; and whether he is providing financial assistance to those PAYE freelancers.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the effect of the Government’s covid-19 (a) health restrictions and (b) economic measures on people over the age of 75 years.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
We are undertaking a wide range of analysis to support decision making across government. We are keeping Parliament and the wider public updated on the analysis of covid including through several survey publications on business and social impacts available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-statistics-and-analysis#social-impacts.
More broadly, equality impacts have been identified as part of an ongoing process to support policy development and have been a key part of the decision-making process. The responsibility for equalities impact assessments lies with departments, who take this responsibility very seriously. Impact assessments are kept under review.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support self-employed people not eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is helping those that have been adversely affected by COVID-19, and has already provided over £13 billion of support. Those not eligible for the SEISS may still be eligible for other elements of the unprecedented package of financial support available. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants. All 11 million UK self-assessment taxpayers will also be able to benefit from the recently enhanced Time to Pay ‘self-service’ facility to form a 12-month, interest-free payment arrangement for up to £30,000 of self-assessment debt.
Furthermore, the Chancellor has announced additional funding to support cash grants of up to £2,100 per month primarily for businesses in the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sector who may be adversely affected by the restrictions in high-alert level areas. These grants will be available retrospectively for areas which have already been subject to restrictions, and come on top of higher levels of additional business support for Local Authorities moving into Tier 3 which, if scaled up across the country, would be worth more than £1 billion. These grants could benefit about 150,000 businesses in England, including hotels, restaurants, B&Bs and many more which are not legally required to close but have been adversely affected nonetheless by local restrictions.