The UK government has published its response to the Public Accounts Committee’s 8 March 2023 report on Covid-19 employment support schemes. The reply, set out in Treasury Minutes on 15 May, agrees with the following of the Committee’s recommendations:
HMRC and the Treasury will publish final evaluations of the impact and value for money of the Coronavirus job retention scheme and self-employment income support scheme by December 2023. The response also commits to assessing the impact of the self-employed scheme on those who did not qualify. The departments will also evaluate the UK schemes by comparison with those that were deployed in other countries and include ‘lessons learned’ in the final evaluation reports.
HMRC and the Treasury will set out their priorities for obtaining data which would facilitate the better targeting of financial support. The response highlights progress to date, including the outcome of one of HMRC’s data-gathering consultations Improving the data HMRC collects from its customers which concluded that the collection of data on the following would be prioritised: (1) employee hours via RTI reporting, (2) dividends from owner-managed businesses via the self-assessment tax return, and (3) start and end dates of self-employment. HMRC intends to start collecting this extra data from 2024 (subject to the necessary provisions in a future Finance Bill).
HMRC will continue to recover incorrectly paid furlough claims, moving its Covid compliance activity to sit alongside ‘business as usual compliance’ from September 2023.
The government disagrees with the committee’s recommendation to increase the number of employers it penalises for making excessive claims and incentivise other employers to repay grants incorrectly claimed. HMRC cannot pre-determine the outcome of cases and, as a result, is unable to predict the extent to which penalties will be imposed in the future. The government also notes that it was never the intention to penalise innocent error.
The UK government has published its response to the Public Accounts Committee’s 8 March 2023 report on Covid-19 employment support schemes. The reply, set out in Treasury Minutes on 15 May, agrees with the following of the Committee’s recommendations:
HMRC and the Treasury will publish final evaluations of the impact and value for money of the Coronavirus job retention scheme and self-employment income support scheme by December 2023. The response also commits to assessing the impact of the self-employed scheme on those who did not qualify. The departments will also evaluate the UK schemes by comparison with those that were deployed in other countries and include ‘lessons learned’ in the final evaluation reports.
HMRC and the Treasury will set out their priorities for obtaining data which would facilitate the better targeting of financial support. The response highlights progress to date, including the outcome of one of HMRC’s data-gathering consultations Improving the data HMRC collects from its customers which concluded that the collection of data on the following would be prioritised: (1) employee hours via RTI reporting, (2) dividends from owner-managed businesses via the self-assessment tax return, and (3) start and end dates of self-employment. HMRC intends to start collecting this extra data from 2024 (subject to the necessary provisions in a future Finance Bill).
HMRC will continue to recover incorrectly paid furlough claims, moving its Covid compliance activity to sit alongside ‘business as usual compliance’ from September 2023.
The government disagrees with the committee’s recommendation to increase the number of employers it penalises for making excessive claims and incentivise other employers to repay grants incorrectly claimed. HMRC cannot pre-determine the outcome of cases and, as a result, is unable to predict the extent to which penalties will be imposed in the future. The government also notes that it was never the intention to penalise innocent error.
