Thirty-fourth Report - Covid-19: Support for jobs

Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee HC 920 20 December 2020
Report Status Government responded
Conclusions & Recommendations 22 items (16 recs)
Source View on Parliament website
Government Response (AI assessment · 21 of 22 classified)
Accepted 13
Accepted in Part 2
Acknowledged 3
Not Addressed 3
Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty fourth report from Session 2019-21 · published 25 Mar 2021
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Recommendations & Conclusions

13 results
2 Recommendation Accepted
The age of the Self Assessment system made it more difficult for HMRC to provide...
Recommendation
The age of the Self Assessment system made it more difficult for HMRC to provide financial support for the self-employed. Its tax system for the self-employed lags behind that available in other countries. The Self Assessment system was built in … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation and committed to providing an explanation by March 2021, detailing how insights from other countries' self-employed tax systems are being applied to the Making Tax Digital programme and wider tax administration strategy.
HM Treasury
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3 Recommendation Accepted
The Departments have not done enough to reduce the number of people excluded from the...
Recommendation
The Departments have not done enough to reduce the number of people excluded from the schemes. The Departments still do not have a complete assessment of the number of people excluded from the first phase of CJRS and SEISS up … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation and states it has been implemented, having investigated data sources for excluded groups and liaised with other departments. It explained that schemes balanced support with fraud prevention using existing HMRC data, and highlighted ongoing efforts through the 10-year Tax Administration Strategy.
HM Treasury
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5 Recommendation Accepted
The Departments will not know the actual levels of fraud and error within these schemes...
Recommendation
The Departments will not know the actual levels of fraud and error within these schemes until 2021. HMRC does not expect to have a statistical estimate of the total fraud and error levels across both schemes until the end of … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, agreeing to write to the Committee by March 2021. It confirms provisional fraud and error assessments are in place, with ongoing improvement of evidence, and outlines its risk-based and post-payment compliance approach for recovering incorrectly claimed grants.
HM Treasury
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7 Recommendation Accepted
We are concerned that HM Treasury is unable to explain how much the extended schemes...
Recommendation
We are concerned that HM Treasury is unable to explain how much the extended schemes are forecast to cost or what would constitute value for money. HM Treasury argues that it falls to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has been implemented, confirming that the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury wrote to the committee on 20 January 2021, outlining how HM Treasury will assess value for money for the extended schemes.
HM Treasury
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10 Recommendation Accepted
The extension of both schemes was announced in November 2020.
Recommendation
The extension of both schemes was announced in November 2020. At that stage the initial schemes had not been formally evaluated. The Departments told us that they were undertaking informal evaluations to help them tailor their communications to those the … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has already implemented it by regularly monitoring and publishing official statistics on CJRS and SEISS, including take-up by area, age, and gender, and has published a detailed evaluation plan for CJRS.
HM Treasury
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11 Recommendation Accepted
We asked whether the Departments had undertaken any evaluation on the regional differences in take-up...
Recommendation
We asked whether the Departments had undertaken any evaluation on the regional differences in take-up or the schemes and take-up by groups with protected characteristics.24 HMRC currently reports monthly on the cost of the schemes and provides analysis on take-up … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has already implemented it by regularly monitoring and publishing official statistics on CJRS and SEISS, including take-up by area, age, and gender, and has published a detailed evaluation plan for CJRS.
HM Treasury
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12 Recommendation Accepted
HMRC’s initial planning assumptions suggested that the level of fraud and error would be 5%...
Recommendation
HMRC’s initial planning assumptions suggested that the level of fraud and error would be 5% to 10% within CJRS and 1% to 2% within SEISS. We asked whether it expected the level of fraud and error to change under the … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, agreeing to write to the Committee by March 2021. It confirms provisional fraud and error assessments are in place, with ongoing improvement of evidence, and outlines its risk-based and post-payment compliance approach for recovering incorrectly claimed grants.
HM Treasury
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15 Recommendation Accepted
Two further groups that were largely excluded from support were freelancers and owner-managers of companies.
Recommendation
Two further groups that were largely excluded from support were freelancers and owner-managers of companies. Freelancers generally have short-term contracts with employers and as a result many might not have been on a company’s PAYE system at the cut-off point … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, stating it has been implemented by investigating data sources for excluded groups and liaising with other departments. It reiterates that schemes prioritized existing HMRC data for verification and highlights ongoing efforts through the 10-year Tax Administration Strategy for better data.
HM Treasury
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18 Recommendation Accepted
Employees who were let go after 23 September 2020 can be rehired and furloughed again...
Recommendation
Employees who were let go after 23 September 2020 can be rehired and furloughed again with CJRS extended, but if they were let go before that date then it would not be possible to furlough them. HM Treasury told us … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has implemented it, explaining that eligibility has been extended where possible while balancing fraud prevention. They highlight past actions and state they continue to explore further options.
HM Treasury
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19 Recommendation Accepted
We asked the Departments how much they expected the extended furlough scheme and the SEISS...
Recommendation
We asked the Departments how much they expected the extended furlough scheme and the SEISS would cost the taxpayer on top of the £55 billion spent so far. HM Treasury told us that it was not responsible for forecasting the … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has been implemented, confirming that the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury wrote to the committee on 20 January 2021 outlining how HM Treasury will assess value for money. Revised costs will be set out at the next Budget.
HM Treasury
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20 Recommendation Accepted
HM Treasury asserted that this was a similar approach to that it had taken when...
Recommendation
HM Treasury asserted that this was a similar approach to that it had taken when introducing the original schemes in March.54 It told us that, at the height of the initial schemes in the spring, they cost around £10 billion … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has been implemented, confirming that the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury wrote to the committee on 20 January 2021 outlining how HM Treasury will assess value for money. Revised costs will be set out at the next Budget.
HM Treasury
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21 Recommendation Accepted
The total cost of the schemes is now estimated to be £76 billion, with OBR...
Recommendation
The total cost of the schemes is now estimated to be £76 billion, with OBR estimating that the extensions to the schemes will add an additional £21 billion to the total. We asked the Departments what calculations they had made … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has been implemented, confirming that the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury wrote to the committee on 20 January 2021, outlining how HM Treasury will assess value for money for the extended schemes. Revised costs will be set out at the next Budget.
HM Treasury
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22 Recommendation Accepted
The condensed timetable for introducing the schemes meant that a lot of the standard documentation...
Recommendation
The condensed timetable for introducing the schemes meant that a lot of the standard documentation that would accompany such a major policy initiative—business cases, options appraisal and detailed cost-benefit analysis—wasn’t undertaken back in the spring.57 HM Treasury asserted that the … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation and states it has been implemented, confirming the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury wrote to the committee in January 2021 to outline the value for money assessment approach for the extended schemes. It details ongoing VFM evaluations for both CJRS and SEISS.
HM Treasury
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