Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of exempting healthcare workers who have reached the income threshold for the High-Income Child Benefit Tax Charge as a result of working additional hours during the covid-19 outbreak from that charge; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of such an exemption on staffing levels in winter 2021-22.
No assessment has been made. Data on the number of staff not working overtime or reducing their overtime hours is not held centrally.
We have had no specific discussions with HM Treasury and no assessment of the potential impact of an exemption on staffing levels in winter 2021/22.