Welfare policy in Scotland Contents

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1Introduction

1.In July 2020, we re-launched an inquiry that our predecessor Committee had undertaken, the My Scottish Affairs inquiry. The purpose of the inquiry was to embark on an engagement mission to hear the ideas and concerns of the people of Scotland and listen to their proposals for an inquiry the Scottish Affairs Committee could undertake. We thank everyone who got involved in this process and engaged with the inquiry. Amongst the suggestions was an option of conducting an inquiry into the impact of social security policy in Scotland1 that was submitted by Citizens Advice Scotland and other individuals.

2.We felt that this was a good option and a timely suggestion for the following reasons:

• Our predecessor Committee’s inquiry into welfare policy in Scotland had to be concluded early due to the General Election in December 2019.
• In previous parliaments our predecessor Committee had looked into the issue of welfare policy in Scotland (March 2016—Devolution of welfare in Scotland,2 April 2017—Inter-governmental co-operation on social security)3 including joint working with the Social Security Committee of the Scottish Parliament.
• The covid-19 pandemic has seen many people in Scotland turn to the welfare system and so we saw this as an appropriate opportunity to assess how the devolution of welfare to Scotland was progressing and if the people of Scotland were benefitting from this process.
• We also felt it was a good opportunity to take stock of how the devolution of welfare powers to Scotland was progressing and what effect this was having on claimants in Scotland.

Table 1: Scottish Benefits Timeline4

Introduction date	Benefit	Notes	Agency
April 2013	Council Tax Reduction	Not social security law but rules reflect Council Tax Benefit	Local authorities
April 2017	Scottish Welfare Fund	Non repayable crisis grants and community care grants	Local authorities
April 2017	Discretionary Housing Payment	Includes funding to mitigated ‘bedroom tax’ ‘in full’	Local authorities
October 2017	Universal Credit Scottish Choices	Claimant can choose direct to landlord or more frequent payments	DWP
September 2018	Carer’s Allowance	Executive competence transferred	DWP agency agreement
September 2018	Carer’s Allowance Supplement	Twice yearly supplement to recipients of Carer’s Allowance	Social Security Scotland
December 2018	Best Start Grant: pregnancy and baby payment	£600 for first child, £300 for other children for families on Universal Credit or similar	Social Security Scotland
April 2019	Best Start Grant: early learning payment	£250 for child aged 2 ½ to 3 for families on Universal Credit or similar	Social Security Scotland
June 2019	Best Start Grant: school age payment	£250 for child around school starting age for families on Universal Credit or similar	Social Security Scotland
August 2019	Best Start Foods	£17 every four weeks during pregnancy. £34 every four weeks from your child being born up until they’re one year old. £17 every four weeks between the ages of one and three.	Social Security Scotland
September 2019	Funeral Support Payment	Help with funeral costs for those on Universal Credit or similar	Social Security Scotland
October 2019	Young Carer Grant	£305 annually to 16, 17, 18 year old young carers not entitled to carer’s allowance	Social Security Scotland
April 2020	Personal Independence Payment Disability Living Allowance Attendance Allowance Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit Severe Disablement Allowance	Executive competence transferred–these benefits are now part of the Scottish Budget	DWP agency agreement
August 2020	Job Start Payment	£250 (£400 if have children) for 16-24 year olds offered a job after 6 months unemployment on Universal Credit	Social Security Scotland
October 2020	Self isolation support grant	£500 for people on UC or similar who are required to self-isolate	Local Authorities
November 2020	Child Winter Heating Assistance	£200 annually for families with children in receipt of highest rate care DLA	Social Security Scotland
February 2021	Scottish Child Payment	£10 per week for every child under 6 for families on Universal Credit or similar	Social Security Scotland
Autumn 2021	Child Disability Payment	Replacing child DLA, following pilot in summer 2021	Social Security Scotland
Summer 2022	Adult Disability Payment	Replacing PIP, following pilot in spring 2022	Social Security Scotland
End 2022	Scottish Child Payment (under 16)	Extension of qualifying age from 6 to 16	Social Security Scotland
Between 2022 and 2025	Older People’s Disability Assistance Carers Assistance Cold Spell Heating Assistance Winter Heating Assistance for older people Employment Injury Assistance	Replacements for remaining DWP devolved benefits. New timetable yet to be announced following delay to programme	Social Security Scotland
2025	All benefits launched and case transfer completed	Severe Disablement Allowance to remain administered by DWP

Our Inquiry

3.We launched our inquiry, Welfare policy in Scotland, on 14 October 2020 and published a call for written evidence on our website.5 We held five evidence sessions as part of the inquiry and published 24 pieces of written evidence. We would like to thank all the witnesses who gave oral evidence and written evidence, especially during this difficult time. We would also like to thank the respondents who took the opportunity to respond to our survey. The responses were very useful and helped to inform our questioning of the Scottish and UK governments. We published the results of this survey on our website in March.6 Our inquiry spanned across several months. We have made every effort to ensure that the findings of this Report are accurate and up to date, however, we realise that the issue of welfare policy is a fast moving landscape and there is the potential for some aspects of this Report to be out of date shortly after publication.

Report Structure

4.This Report looks at what the Committee has heard during the inquiry. Chapter 2 looks at the approaches towards welfare taken by the Scottish and UK governments. Chapter 3 looks at intergovernmental working and data sharing arrangements on welfare between the governments. Chapter 4 analyses the evidence received on accessing social security in Scotland. Chapters 5 and 6 explores how Universal Credit works in Scotland and Chapter 7 looks at Universal Credit Scottish Choices.