The super-deduction is available only to incorporated businesses subject to the charge of UK corporation tax.

The Government has no plans to extend the super-deduction to unincorporated businesses.

Unincorporated businesses can continue to claim 100% relief on qualifying investments in plant and machinery through the Annual Investment Allowance, which will remain at its highest ever level of £1 million until the end of 2021.

Like all employers, umbrella companies are responsible for paying employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) where they are due. Employers cannot, by law, deduct employer NICs from an employee's gross pay. The payment of employer NICs out of the umbrella company’s fee may be shown on the same payslip as deductions, such as Income Tax, from the employee’s gross pay, so that it can look as if an individual is paying the employer NICs, when this is not actually the case.

New rules came into force from 6 April 2020 requiring all agency workers to be given a Key Information Document by an agency before agreeing terms, including when the agency worker is engaged through an umbrella company. Key Information Documents set out details about the engagement, including rates of pay. This allows workers to see how deductions and fees are made through the labour supply chain and how this affects their gross pay and net pay.

When set up and operated correctly, umbrella companies comply with tax and NICs legislation. Umbrella company employees who believe that an umbrella company is not complying with its tax or NICs obligations can report it to HM Revenue and Customs: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/report-fraud-to-hmrc.

Like all employers, umbrella companies are responsible for paying employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) where they are due. Employers cannot, by law, deduct employer NICs from an employee's gross pay. The payment of employer NICs out of the umbrella company’s fee may be shown on the same payslip as deductions, such as Income Tax, from the employee’s gross pay, so that it can look as if an individual is paying the employer NICs, when this is not actually the case.

New rules came into force from 6 April 2020 requiring all agency workers to be given a Key Information Document by an agency before agreeing terms, including when the agency worker is engaged through an umbrella company. Key Information Documents set out details about the engagement, including rates of pay. This allows workers to see how deductions and fees are made through the labour supply chain and how this affects their gross pay and net pay.

When set up and operated correctly, umbrella companies comply with tax and NICs legislation. Umbrella company employees who believe that an umbrella company is not complying with its tax or NICs obligations can report it to HM Revenue and Customs: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/report-fraud-to-hmrc.

The information requested is provided in the attached spreadsheet.

We carefully balance our duty to the taxpayer to recover overpayments with our support for claimants. Steps are in place to ensure deductions are manageable; this month we further reduced the cap on deductions from Universal Credit awards to 25% and lengthened the payback period from 12 months to 24 meaning in effect someone can receive 25 payments over 24 months.

From 3rd April 2020, deductions from Universal Credit for some government debt, such as Tax Credits, benefit overpayments and Social Fund Loans were suspended for 3 months, which resulted in many claimants seeing an increase in the amount they received while allowing staff to prioritise processing the unprecedented number of new benefits claims.

Customers can contact DWP if they are experiencing financial hardship in order to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment, depending on financial circumstances.

The information requested is provided in the attached spreadsheet.

We carefully balance our duty to the taxpayer to recover overpayments with our support for claimants. Steps are in place to ensure deductions are manageable; this month we further reduced the cap on deductions from Universal Credit awards to 25% and lengthened the payback period from 12 months to 24 meaning in effect someone can receive 25 payments over 24 months.

From 3rd April 2020, deductions from Universal Credit for some government debt, such as Tax Credits, benefit overpayments and Social Fund Loans were suspended for 3 months, which resulted in many claimants seeing an increase in the amount they received while allowing staff to prioritise processing the unprecedented number of new benefits claims.

Customers can contact DWP if they are experiencing financial hardship in order to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment, depending on financial circumstances.

From 3rd April 2020, deductions from Universal Credit for some government debt, such as Tax Credits, benefit overpayments and Social Fund Loans were suspended for 3 months. This was done to ease the financial pressure of debt recovery on benefit claimants and to also allow Debt Management staff to be re-deployed to focus on the unprecedented volume of new claims received during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Universal Credit advance repayments are made gradually over 12 months, and deductions are capped at 30% of a claimant’s standard allowance. This is further to the reduction of the overall maximum level of deductions from 40% to 30% of the standard allowance since October 2019.

From April 2021, the repayment period will be extended from 12 months to 24 months and the deductions cap will be reduced from 30% to 25%.

For those who find themselves in unexpected hardship, advance repayments can be deferred for up to three months in certain cases.

The requested information surrounding deductions to Universal Credit payments by parliamentary constituency is shown in the attached table.

From 3rd April 2020, deductions from Universal Credit for some government debt, such as Tax Credits, benefit overpayments and Social Fund Loans were suspended for 3 months. This was done to ease the financial pressure of debt recovery on benefit claimants and to also allow Debt Management staff to be re-deployed to focus on the unprecedented volume of new claims received during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Universal Credit advance repayments are made gradually over 12 months, and deductions are capped at 30 per cent of a claimant’s standard allowance. This is further to the reduction of the overall maximum level of deductions from 40 per cent to 30 per cent of the standard allowance since October 2019.

From October 2021, the repayment period will be extended from 12 months to 24 months and the deductions cap will be reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent.

For those who find themselves in unexpected hardship, advance repayments can be deferred for up to three months in certain cases.

The requested information surrounding deductions to Universal Credit payments by parliamentary constituency is shown in the attached table.

Deductions are currently capped at 30% of the claimant’s standard allowance down from 40% previously. This is due to reduce further to 25% of the claimant’s standard allowance in October this year

For Universal Credit claims with a payment due during November 2020, 2,128,000 (44% of all claims) had a deduction. The total amount deducted was £166,330,000 (around 5% of the total amount of UC paid during November 2020), with an average of £78 deducted per claim.

Notes:

1. Deductions include advance repayments, third party deductions and other deductions but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.

2. Number of claims rounded to the nearest 1,000, total deducted rounded to the nearest £10,000.

3. Amount of Universal Credit paid reflects the amount of money paid to claimants and their landlords as part of their award, including the amount which they would have been entitled to had it not been deducted. It does not include other payments such as advances and hardship payments.

4. Figures are affected by the impact of the temporary suspension of some deduction types due to Covid-19. During April 2020, government deductions were temporarily suspended and only began to be reinstated from July. As of November, these had not been fully returned.

5. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.

6. Claim numbers may not match official statistics caseloads due to small methodological differences.

I thank the hon. Lady for raising this point. I am happy to ask my office to get in touch with her for details, so that we can highlight this to the Department for Work and Pensions.

Students who face additional barriers to learning often receive a bursary to help them overcome those barriers. If they apply for universal credit, the bursary is not counted as income—that is, unless they receive the Scottish Government care experience bursary. Will the Secretary of State speak to his counterparts in the Department for Work and Pensions to right this wrong, which I am sure must be an oversight, so that care experience students are not given support from the Scottish Government only to have it taken away again by the UK Government?

No assessment has been made.

Tackling poverty will always be a priority for this Government. Our recent focus has rightly been on supporting people financially during these unprecedented times, with an injection of billions of pounds to strengthen the welfare system in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including a temporary increase in the Universal Credit Standard Allowance to support those facing the most financial disruption. Through the Covid Winter Grant Scheme, announced on 9 November, we are extending that support with an additional £170m for local authorities in England so that they can support families with children and other vulnerable people with the cost of food and essential utilities this winter.

From October 2019, the overall maximum level for standard deductions is normally limited to 30% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance except for last-resort deductions. From October 2021, this is being reduced to 25% of the claimant’s standard allowance except for last-resort deductions. We recognise the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt, so last resort deductions can be applied to protect vulnerable claimants from eviction and/or having their fuel supply disconnected, by providing an affordable repayment plan for arrears of these essential services.

Claimants can ask for New Claims and Change of Circumstances Advance repayments to be delayed for up to 3 months in exceptional circumstances.

This information is not held. The Department does not take applications to reduce court fine deductions but signposts the claimant to Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service. Magistrate Courts impose Fines and Compensation orders on offenders, and can instruct DWP to make a deduction from Universal Credit. The deduction rate is set out in regulations at a minimum rate of 5% of the standard allowance and up to a maximum rate of £108.35 per assessment period, as long as there is sufficient UC in payment. The maximum deduction will not exceed 30% of the claimant’s standard allowance.

Work Coaches can refer claimants to more specialist support for personal budgeting, money guidance and debt advice if required, including through the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS).

The information is provided in the table below

Notes

1.Claim figures rounded to the nearest 1,000, payments to the nearest £100,000.

2. Total value of Universal Credit claims reflects the amount of money paid to claimants and their landlords as part of their award, including the amount which they would have been entitled to had it not been deducted/sanctioned. It does not include other payments such as advances and hardship payments.

3.Figures are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.

4.Claim numbers may not match official statistics caseloads due to small methodological differences.

5.The increase in the proportion of claims with deductions for fines is due to an improved manual process phased in between February and the end of March 2019 for courts to send through their court fines deductions.

6.The decrease in number of claims with deductions for court fines, and total deducted from October 2019 is because the maximum deductions limit was reduced from 40% of the standard allowance to 30% of the standard allowance.

7.Figures for April and May 2020 are affected by the temporary suspension of third party deductions due to Covid-19.

8.During June 2020, third party deductions were reinstated but other deductions (for benefit overpayments etc.) were still suspended. This led to an increase in the total deducted for court fines, as a result of their place in the deductions priority order. From July 2020, other deductions began to be reinstated, following a phased approach.

The decrease to the maximum deductions limit relates to a reduction in the overall normal maximum rate of deductions from Universal Credit (UC) from 40% to 30% of the claimant’s standard allowance from October 2019. The normal maximum rate of deductions will reduce to 25% of the claimant’s standard allowance in October this year.

Magistrate Courts impose Fines and Compensation orders on offenders, and can instruct the DWP to make a deduction from UC. The rate we can recover court fines is set out in the regulations at a minimum rate of 5% of a claimant’s standard allowance and up to a maximum rate of £108.35 per assessment period, as long as there is sufficient UC in payment. Similarly, the maximum deduction for court fines will not exceed 30% of the claimant’s standard allowance (25% from October.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The information requested is not held centrally.

We are unable to provide figures for court fine deductions for all of the last three years as improvements to third party data reporting commenced in November 2018. Information which is available can be found in the table below.

Notes:

The Department’s deductions policy strikes a fair balance between a claimant’s need to meet their financial obligations and their ability to ensure they can meet their day-to-day needs. It maintains our policy to enforce social obligations such as the payment of court fines, ensure Government debt is recovered and vitally to safeguard claimants from the potential impacts of not repaying priority debts, such as homelessness or loss of utilities. Since October 2019, Universal Credit deductions are a maximum of 30% of a claimant’s standard allowance down from 40% previously. The Budget 2020 also set out that the maximum level will be further reduced, so that standard deductions will not exceed 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance from October 2021.

For Universal Credit payments due during August 2020:

a) 4,700 of 8,600 claims in the South Shields parliamentary constituency had a deduction, with £73 on average being deducted from these claims.

b) 1,847,000 of 4,536,000 claims of all GB claims had a deduction, with £70 on average being deducted from these claims.

Notes:

1. The number of claims per constituency are rounded to the nearest 100, total claims at GB level rounded to the nearest 1,000.

2. Deductions include advance repayments, third party deductions and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.

3. Numbers are affected by the impact of the temporary suspension of some deduction types due to Covid-19. During April 2020, government deductions were temporarily suspended and only began to be reinstated from July.

4. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.

From October, we will reduce the Universal Credit standard deductions cap to 25% of a claimant’s Universal Credit standard allowance from 30%.

Court fine deductions fall within the cap which means, from October, the maximum deduction will be the lower of £108.35, set out in legislation, or 25% of a claimant’s standard allowance. The maximum deduction applies only where a claimant’s individual circumstances allow the maximum deduction within the standard deductions cap.

Deductions for court fines are only made from Universal Credit if a Court requests DWP to do so. The Court only makes such a request if it decides that a deduction from benefit is the most appropriate method of payment. It has always been the case that individuals can ask the Court to consider a private payment arrangement - both before a deduction from benefits is requested and at any time thereafter. Officials from DWP and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service have regular discussions about these arrangements.

From October, we will reduce the Universal Credit standard deductions cap to 25% of a claimant’s Universal Credit standard allowance from 30%.

Court fine deductions fall within the cap which means, from October, the maximum deduction will be the lower of £108.35, set out in legislation, or 25% of a claimant’s standard allowance. The maximum deduction applies only where a claimant’s individual circumstances allow the maximum deduction within the standard deductions cap.

Deductions for court fines are only made from Universal Credit if a Court requests DWP to do so. The Court only makes such a request if it decides that a deduction from benefit is the most appropriate method of payment. It has always been the case that individuals can ask the Court to consider a private payment arrangement - both before a deduction from benefits is requested and at any time thereafter. Officials from DWP and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service have regular discussions about these arrangements.