Source · Select Committees · Scottish Affairs Committee
Recommendation 61
61
Deferred
We heard how a wide range of organisations supported people to understand their eligibilities and...
Conclusion
We heard how a wide range of organisations supported people to understand their eligibilities and access benefits and poverty relief. Local Authorities have invested funds and developed services to help people experiencing poverty navigate the various benefits 128 Q102 129 Q102 130 Q102 131 Q8 132 Q44 133 Citizens Advice Scotland (WPS0014) 134 Q102 135 Q102 136 Q44 28 Welfare policy in Scotland and apply to Universal Credit; for example, Councillor Bell from Glasgow City Council told us of a £2million investment in support for Universal Credit applications.137 Polly Jones from The Trussell Trust food bank network stated that through their provision of emergency food parcels, they have developed collaborations that enable specialist advice providers to visit the foodbank to provide support, and volunteers sign-post to funds or services, stating ‘we have relationships with nearly 30,000 referral agencies across the UK. It is a very complex picture.’138 They also told us that a research project in East Scotland with advice providers found that ‘many of those very experienced advice providers themselves could not keep up with the changes in advice provision and support across their own localities.’139
Government response summary AI-generated
The government states that DWP and Social Security Scotland have established an Operational Reference Group to continuously improve the benefits experience and review service delivery issues for future benefit delivery.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
The Scottish Government already maintains a directory of public services, including how to access all available reserved and devolved benefits and grants, this can be found at www.mygov.scot and is maintained to ensure accuracy. In addition to this, the Scottish Government works to ensure that Social Security Scotland provides stakeholders who produce guidance, and organisations which manage benefit calculators, with information in a timely fashion which meets their editorial deadlines, so that existing external resources are as up to date as possible. As part of our scoping work for signposting and referrals we are also looking at existing resources and how services interact both locally and nationally – with the aim of complimenting and not duplicating what already exists. We have invested more than £3 million over two years to embed welfare rights advisors in 150 GP surgeries in Scotland’s most deprived areas, and have committed £1.5 million to trialling similar embedded approaches to advice in education settings. In doing so, we increase the routes through which people can access advice, using an approach which has been proven to reach those who have not engaged with traditional advice services. This is in addition to our existing commitment to invest morethan £12 million in welfare and debt advice services in 2021–22. In terms of advocacy, we are nearing the completion of a large-scale procurement process to establish a comprehensive free advocacy service for all clients of Social Security Scotland who require assistance to communicate as a result of having a disability. This has been supported by a stakeholder working group comprising advocacy providers and membership organisations, whose input will continue to be central to delivery of the service and alignment with the sector. Currently, we are running roadshows to provide information to organisations about the Child Disability Payment. The feedback so far has been overwhelming positive.We will continue to provide updates and information to organisations with regular cascades, as well as ensuring internal colleagues are aware of this information, ensuring consistent messaging until we have a longer term solution inplace. We will also shortly introduce in the Child Disability Payment areas ahead of nationwide rollout , our new Local Delivery service which will be able to answer queries about Scottish benefits, help to complete paper or online applications, and be available online, on the phone and alsoface-to-face. The Scottish Government also provides the majority of funding for the Child Poverty Action Group’s (CPAG) second-tier welfare rights advice service and training. In 2020–21, CPAG provided advice to staff in 445 different agencies. In 2021–22 we have granted CPAG up to £675,000 to continue the service’s operation, and in March 2021 we published analysis which outlined its value to the wider advice and advocacy sector in Scotland.2 We also note there is an existing resource - Welfare Benefits & TaxCredits Handbook, 2021/22 | CPAG – which is widely used.
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