Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 28
Second Report - Welfare policy in Scotland
Published 23 Jun 2021
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)
It appears that this positive working relationship has been fostered despite the debate as to whether the UK and Scottish governments have differing viewpoints on social security (detailed in Chapter 2). The Cabinet Secretary highlighted there were ‘a range of political differences between the Scottish and UK governments about social security’64 whilst the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work acknowledged this saying ‘there are political directions that we disagree on’.65 Despite these political differences we heard evidence from both the Scottish Government and the UK Government that they are trying to work together to ensure the devolution of welfare powers to Scotland is a success. The Cabinet Secretary said that the two governments ‘need to [work together] because this is a joint programme [ … ] and we have shared clients and a shared responsibility for them.’66 The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work agreed with this statement explaining to the Committee that the UK Government ‘will never be precious’67 over its handling of welfare and acknowledged that if ‘there are lessons for us to learn, then we will learn them’.68 He went on to say that the UK Government ‘will not seek to be different [from the Scottish Government] for the sake of being different because the only thing that matters is the people that we are supporting, which is predominantly the most vulnerable people in society.’69 Administering welfare: Processes, organisations and systems in the multi-agency context
From: Scottish Affairs Committee, Second Report - Welfare policy in Scotland (HC 55), 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".