Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a sick pay scheme for the self-employed.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is paid for by employers and there is no mechanism to include the self-employed in SSP.
The Government does have a wider safety net to ensure self-employed people are supported through the welfare system. Where an individual’s income is reduced while off work sick and they require further financial support, they may be able to claim Universal Credit and new style Employment and Support Allowance, depending on their personal circumstances.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if HMRC will publish the criteria for exceptional circumstances of late applications for Self Employment Income Support Scheme grants.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The guidance on exceptional circumstances for late applications to Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grants was last reviewed in February 2022. This coincided with the final date for making a late claim of 28 February 2022; this date was published in advance on GOV.UK.
HMRC has no plans to publish the criteria for exceptional circumstances of late applications for SEISS grants. The SEISS ended on 30 September 2021. HMRC had limited discretion which was applied in exceptional circumstances. The deadline for making a request to consider a late claim to a SEISS grant was 28 February 2022.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the guidance on exceptional circumstances for late applications to Self Employment Income Support Scheme grants was last reviewed.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The guidance on exceptional circumstances for late applications to Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grants was last reviewed in February 2022. This coincided with the final date for making a late claim of 28 February 2022; this date was published in advance on GOV.UK.
HMRC has no plans to publish the criteria for exceptional circumstances of late applications for SEISS grants. The SEISS ended on 30 September 2021. HMRC had limited discretion which was applied in exceptional circumstances. The deadline for making a request to consider a late claim to a SEISS grant was 28 February 2022.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Covid 20-21 Tax Income Guarantee Scheme.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government is committed to ensuring tax payers money is spent effectively. All departmental expenditure is made in line with the principles set out in Managing Public Money and the Green Book, and we regularly consider the performance of programmes to ensure they are delivering for communities across the country.
Also, in November 2022, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published its first evaluation strategy, which sets out our commitment to undertake and learn from evaluation activity across our policy areas. It outlines evaluation activity that is already underway and future plans. The annexes provide a list of ongoing and planned work, as well as a list of published evaluations. In addition, we are listing all new commissioned research projects, from January 2023 on gov.uk website, and aim to publish completed research outputs promptly on gov.uk.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many organisations in the cultural sector received (a) furlough and (b) other financial support from her Department during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
HM Treasury (HMT) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have published a range of detailed statistics relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. The information can be found on the GOV.UK website. Interim evaluations of these schemes were published in October 2022, and HMT and HMRC plan to publish the final evaluations later this year.
Alongside the support provided by HM Treasury and HMRC, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided over £1.57 billion of funding to the cultural sector during the Covid-19 pandemic through the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF). This unprecedented funding supported nearly 220,000 jobs and 5,000 organisations. An evaluation of the CRF was published on the GOV.UK website on 21 April 2023 and includes further details of the support provided to the sector.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) furlough and (b) other support provided by her Department to the cultural sector during the covid-19 pandemic on the retention of jobs in that sector.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
HM Treasury (HMT) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have published a range of detailed statistics relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. The information can be found on the GOV.UK website. Interim evaluations of these schemes were published in October 2022, and HMT and HMRC plan to publish the final evaluations later this year.
Alongside the support provided by HM Treasury and HMRC, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided over £1.57 billion of funding to the cultural sector during the Covid-19 pandemic through the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF). This unprecedented funding supported nearly 220,000 jobs and 5,000 organisations. An evaluation of the CRF was published on the GOV.UK website on 21 April 2023 and includes further details of the support provided to the sector.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an estimate of the total cost of (a) fraud and (b) error arising from (i) purchases of personal protective equipment, (ii) NHS Test and Trace, (iii) Government business support schemes, (iv) the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, (v) the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and (vi) other aspects of the Government's response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), established in August 2022, works with government departments and public bodies to understand and reduce the impact of fraud against the public sector.
Accounting Officers have primary responsibility for managing the risk of fraud in their department. They are accountable for understanding and managing the risk of fraud within the schemes and services they are responsible for delivering. As such, the latest estimates for potential fraud and error loss in the government’s Covid-19 support schemes can be found in departments’ Annual Reports and Accounts, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-reports-and-accounts-for-central-government-departments.
The latest information on post-event assurance for Test and Trace and PPE Procurement can be found within the Department for Health and Social Care's Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 (paragraphs 761 – 774);
Detail of The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s central estimate for estimated levels of fraud and error loss in the Bounce Back Loan Scheme can be found within their Annual Report and Accounts; and
The latest information on error and fraud from HM Revenue & Customs can be found within HMRC’s Error and Fraud in Covid-19 Schemes publication.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of moving staff from HMRC's Customer Compliance Group to Covid-19 schemes on the compliance yield for 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
At the Spring Budget 2021 the Government announced a £100m investment into a Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to significantly extend His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ work to address fraud and error in the HMRC administered COVID-19 support schemes (Self Employment Income Support Scheme, Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Eat Out to Help Out).
The TPT investment has enabled HMRC to recruit and train new people to backfill these tax compliance posts; and in future years these additional resources will mitigate the impact on taxation compliance yield over the 5-year scorecard period.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of expanding the Help to Save scheme to all Universal Credit claimants and broadening points of access to include credit unions and other providers of low-cost credit.
Answered by Lord Harlech - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Help to Save aims to support individuals to kickstart a regular, long-term savings habit and build a rainy-day savings fund by providing a generous government bonus on savings over four years.
The scheme’s eligibility criteria target working individuals in low-income households, who may be able to save a small amount each month due to their employment or self-employment income. Individuals are eligible to open a Help to Save account if they are: receiving Working Tax Credit; receiving Child Tax Credit and are entitled to Working Tax Credit; or receiving Universal Credit and had take-home pay of £658.64 or more in their last monthly assessment period.
As the scheme is targeted towards working individuals, the Government has no current plans to broaden the scheme’s eligibility criteria.
Help to Save is currently delivered by NS&I on behalf of HMRC. This delivery model provides national coverage with a single provider, maintaining simplicity for scheme participants and providing a single point of entry to the scheme. The Government has no current plans to alter this delivery mechanism to allow credit unions or other providers of low-cost credit to offer Help to Save.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people worked for the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce in each month between April 2021 and December 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
At Spring Budget 2021 the Government announced a £100 million investment into the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce of 1,250 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff up to March 2023. The taskforce was established to extend HMRC’s work to address fraud and error in the COVID support schemes that they administered (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, and Eat Out to Help Out). The table below shows the month-by-month breakdown of resources deployed in the taskforce from April 2021 to end of October 2022. HMRC are unable to provide more recent data as this is still being assured.
Table 1: Monthly breakdown of FTE staff deployed to taskforce:
Period | Apr 2021 | May 2021 | Jun 2021 | Jul 2021 | Aug 2021 | Sep 2021 | Oct 2021 | Nov 2021 | Dec 2021 | Jan 2022 | Feb 2022 | Mar 2022 |
Total FTE | 908 | 1,018 | 1,216 | 1,291 | 1,228 | 1,256 | 1,180 | 1,184 | 1,145 | 1,101 | 1,096 | 1,142 |
Period | Apr 2022 | May 2022 | Jun 2022 | Jul 2022 | Aug 2022 | Sep 2022 | Oct 2022 |
Total FTE | 1,180 | 1,155 | 1,246 | 1,203 | 1,230 | 1,232 | 1,187 |