Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 13
Second Report - Welfare policy in Scotland
Published 23 Jun 2021
Paragraph 79
Addressed to Scotland Office
Scottish Affairs Committee Welfare policy in Scotland All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We welcome the Scottish Government’s intention to move away from face to face assessments as part of the process for administering disability benefits from this summer onward, and we note the support this initiative has from mental health and inclusion charities. However, we understand that there are concerns over how the Scottish Government will gather the relevant data required to make its decisions on the amount of money given to claimants. We also understand the concerns of DWP ministers who highlighted how previous systems that relied primarily on paper- based assessments could pose problems for understanding and providing adequate support for people with disabilities.
From: Scottish Affairs Committee, Second Report - Welfare policy in Scotland (HC 55), paragraph 79, 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".