Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 82
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)
Throughout the inquiry we heard evidence from stakeholders who said the Universal Credit application system had coped with the quick expansions of applications over the past year. David Eiser of The Fraser of Allander Institute, an economic research organisation, noted that ‘in general the Universal Credit system seemed to cope pretty well with this surge in claims.’205 Suzanne Lavelle from Southside Housing Association also mentioned that the system had proved robust under the pressure of the weight of claims being made for Universal Credit in the first few months of the covid-19 pandemic. They said the system had ‘held up well for the people who have digital skills. The DWP has to be commended for the amount of work that has been put into processing the huge influx of claims that it had.’206
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".