Self-employment Income Support Scheme

(asked on 27th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many complaints (a) his Department and (b) HMRC received from self-employed people who were unable to access the self-employment income support scheme; and whether his Department has conducted an impact assessment for that scheme on people with protected characteristics.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 4th February 2021

The information requested in point (a) is not held centrally by HM Treasury, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

On point (b), the Customer Services Group at HMRC received 7,253 complaints about the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). Of this number, 89 per cent were not fully upheld. Approximately 82 per cent of the total complaints were in relation to eligibility for the SEISS.

The Government takes equality considerations seriously and has been careful to give due regard to its Public Sector Equality Duties throughout its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In designing and refining the SEISS scheme, the Treasury undertook an analysis of how this may affect individuals with protected characteristics, in line with its Public Sector Equality Duty, and to ensure that equalities considerations inform the decisions taken by ministers.

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