Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 31
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)
Agency agreements between the Scottish Government and the DWP have been used during the process of the devolution of welfare powers. An agency agreement is used when the DWP delivers benefits which have been devolved to the Scottish Government via legislation, but Social Security Scotland is not yet in a position to administer these benefits to claimants in Scotland. Examples of benefits that have been delivered through agency agreements include Carer’s Allowance, Attendance Allowance and Personal Independence Payment (PIP). The Cabinet Secretary described this system as a ‘pragmatic way to ensure the continuity of payments’77 for claimants in Scotland. She went on to say that the system allows people who claim these benefits to be ‘paid the right amount at the right time, which when we ask clients is consistently the most important thing for them as we move to devolution’.78 Giving the UK Government’s perspective on agency agreements the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work said that the agreements are ‘in place to make sure, from the public’s perspective, there is no cliff edge’79 and that claimants continue to receive the benefit they are eligible for.
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".