Work and Families Bill

That is true. Whether it is tax free or not, I think I can speak on behalf of thousands of employers around the country who have a regular monthly struggle to do their PAYE returns. They would rather not have the responsibility of finding how much is due and to whom and, having done so, finding a way to get it into the hands of the eligible employee with whom, by virtue of the very fact that they are on leave, they may not at that time be in close contact. I am not being sceptical when I surmise that if the Treasury is prepared to pay a bonus to employers to do this work for it, someone has worked out that it costs perhaps a little more than that to do the job. Perhaps that is a little cynical and not very gracious of me. I have no intention of withdrawing it, but I was smiling at the Minister as I said that. It is simply not right that employers, large or small, should have to bear even a part of the financial burden of implementing the very welcome government social policy, even one that has all our support. I cannot see why it is put particularly on small employers. In spite of my view that the main beneficiary of the amendment will be small employers, that has not hindered the CBI from giving it its great support. It mostly deals with larger employers, but feels this issue is important for small employers. Amendment No. 13, which is grouped with it, is also a probing amendment. The Government have not explained the reason for their change of mind, as set out in the Explanatory Note, about imposing this administrative burden on small businesses, even though I said earlier that it is probably for financial reasons. As your Lordships know, small businesses are the backbone of commerce in this country, whether in the form of small manufacturing companies, service industries, from hairdressers to estate agents, professional firms or retailers. Corner shops are particularly hard pressed at the moment. They are often family-run, small businesses, open 24 hours a day every day, with no time at all for complicated book-keeping. The Government, to do them credit, are currently offering inducements to small firms to do some of their tax filing online. Firms with fewer than 50 employees are currently being offered £250 to file their PAYE online. Before imposing what the Government acknowledge is a substantial burden on employers, why cannot HMRC simply upgrade the programme it already has to enable these social benefits at least to be calculated, even if the employer is left with the duty of paying them to the employee entitled? As I said in relation to Amendment No. 11, we have no idea how the Government arrived at what we think is an unduly optimistic calculation of the cost to small businesses that do not enjoy in-house professional assistance and will have to pay their accountants to do this job for them. Where they have to do it themselves, they will have to do so either in trading hours or during the little leisure time that many businesspeople running small businesses are able to enjoy. We need the justification for the Government’s cost projections. We think the burden on small businesses will be much greater, not only in terms of cost but also in terms of the time it will take them. Many of them, as I said, work all around the clock. This probing new clause simply suggests—I put it no higher than that—that the responsibility for administering the whole raft of different kinds of benefits should be that of the Secretary of State. The burden should be taken off small employers if they feel they absolutely cannot cope with it. A small employer, as we are clear, is defined as someone employing fewer than 50 people. How the Secretary of State will do that work is up to him, including providing the online facility. The argument for the amendment is precisely the same as the argument I have just spoken to on Clause 9, which I now beg to move.