Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 46
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)
The DWP concluded on this point that they understand that the Scottish Government is working with ‘very good intentions’116 to try to deliver supportive welfare policies to people in Scotland but the UK Government ‘worry that things are announced before they [Scottish Government] have worked through the details’ of policies.117 Despite this 109 Q185 110 Q187 111 Q185 112 Q185 113 Q185 114 Q185 115 Q177 116 Q187 117 Q177 24 Welfare policy in Scotland the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work did highlight the UK Government’s enthusiasm for intergovernmental work on welfare issues and with the DWP there is ‘never a situation where we will not share data where we can’118 with the Scottish Government.
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".