Recommendation 58

Witnesses consistently highlighted the need to reduce complexity, increase awareness, and improve access to the available benefits and support systems. Nina Ballantyne of Citizens Advice Scotland highlighted that whilst the social security landscape in Scotland may be complicated by the number of agencies that support is available from, this does not mean that it must be a complicated process for a claimant. She argued that a system can be ‘complicated and complex without the user necessarily having to be cognisant and fully up [to date] on all that.’127 To explain the point they drew comparisons with how ‘you can 124 Q146 125 The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (WPS0019) 126 Q102 127 Q102 Welfare policy in Scotland 27 switch your light on or switch your heating on, and you do not need to know that there is a retail energy supplier, a DNO [Distribution Network Operator], a TSO [Transmission System Operator] in the system and everything else coming through the wires.’128