Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee

Recommendation 12

Second Report - Welfare policy in Scotland Published 23 Jun 2021 Paragraph 70 Addressed to Scotland Office
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We also recommend that Social Security Scotland fully engage with the independent benefit calculators currently signposted by the UK Government on its website and for both governments to learn from communications that have taken place throughout Welfare policy in Scotland 5 the covid-19 pandemic to make sure that their respective web pages are clear and highlight relevant and accurate information and sign-post Scottish residents to the correct information resource.

From: Scottish Affairs Committee, Second Report - Welfare policy in Scotland (HC 55), paragraph 70, 23 June 2021

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 19 November 2021 (deadline 23 August 2021).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The UK Government "notes the Committee's recommendations" and responds to each in turn, accepting little of the report's welfare-policy proposals and referring several to the Scottish Government.

  • On the £20 uplift and legacy benefits, it states "There was never any plan to extend the uplift to legacy benefits."
  • On work allowances, it states it "has no plans to extend the work allowance to single adults".
  • On Help to Claim funding, it "considers the existing resource to be sufficient", and says DWP agreed to fund Citizens Advice Scotland for another year, "up to 31 March 2022".
  • On data sharing and Recommendations 2, 7 and 8, it says each data request "must be examined" by DWP as Data Controller, and treats several recommendations as "for the Scottish Government".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error