Bishop of Durham receives answers to written questions on Child Tax Credits

On 19th February 2018 the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Paul Butler, received answers to three written questions on Child Tax Credits, following up questions asked in January. 

The Lord Bishop of Durham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 25 January (HL4634), with reference to their commitment to publishing statistics relating to exceptions to the limit on Child Tax Credits support to two children, what is their criteria for “sufficient cases”.

Lord Bates (Con): Statistics on exceptions to the limit on Child Tax Credit support to two children will be published when there are enough cases to enable meaningful analyses and breakdowns of exception statistics into sub-categories (such as the type of exception), without compromising normal statistical standards regarding disclosure.

via Parliament.uk

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The Lord Bishop of Durham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 25 January (HL4635), how they are measuring and monitoring the impact of the two-child limit for Child Tax Credits on the well-being of children in large families affected by that policy.

Lord Bates: The government is committed to supporting all families. The government provides a range of support in addition to Child Tax Credit. Child Benefit is paid for each child in a household, at £20.70 per week for the first child and £13.70 a week for each subsequent child. To help working parents, the government has doubled the free childcare available for 3 and 4 year olds to 30 hours a week for 38 weeks a year (or 1140 hours per year), saving families in total around £5,000 a year per child. The government is committed to ensuring that the potential impacts on families of its policies are carefully taken into account as part of the policymaking process by applying the Family Test.

via Parliament.uk

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The Lord Bishop of Durham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 25 January (HL4633), of those families affected by the two-child limit for tax credits introduced in April 2017, how many (1) had one or more parents in work, (2) were lone parent families, and (3) were two-parent families, broken down by month; and what was the number of children involved in each family.

Lord Bates: The government considered the impact limiting support in tax credits and Universal Credit has on different groups during its development. We published an Impact Assessment during the passage of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 which shows the number of Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit claimants who were expected to be affected by the policy over the next five years. There will be no cash losers as a direct result of this policy. Those claiming Child Tax Credit for more than two children born before 6 April 2017 will not see a reduction in those payments.

via Parliament.uk