Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 76
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 Cabinet Secretary told us in her evidence that the Scottish Government were, in this instance, moving away from the DWP’s system of using contracted out face to face assessments as part of the information gathering process to administrate disability benefits. She told us that, following feedback from the Scottish Government’s Social security Experience Panels,183 face to face assessments ‘will not have any place within the Scottish system at all.’184 The Cabinet Secretary highlighted the reason for making this change was that the Scottish Government noted that the current assessment system made claimants ‘talk about the stress and anxiety’185 they felt and they used ‘words like “barbaric” for what they have to go through.’186 The Cabinet Secretary highlighted to us that instead the Scottish Government would be looking to get the relevant evidence to be able to make a decision on the level of support through an application form ‘designed to ensure that we have the information required to make a decision’187 and ‘supporting information coming in from whoever knows the client best’188 including carers or medical practitioners.189
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".