Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 71
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 Scottish Government are set to begin taking responsibility for the payment of benefits to disabled people in Scotland this year via the new Scottish Social Security agency. This transfer of powers was due to take place in 2020, however, the process was delayed. The Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People, Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, announced168 the delay of these benefits in April 2020 and then went on to say, in November 2020, that the new target for delivering these benefits was summer 2021 for Child Disability Payment, and summer 2022 for Adult Disability Payment.169 The Cabinet Secretary confirmed when speaking to us that the covid-19 pandemic and the knock on effects this had on the Scottish Government, the DWP, health and social care services and local authorities meant it was not possible to roll out the new benefits to the timetable the Scottish Government had originally planned.170
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".