Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 92
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)
We heard in evidence from the DWP of their pilot of using video calls as a way of supporting people with their Universal Credit claim especially during the pandemic when people have not been able to travel. They stated this would also continue in ordinary times for individuals who would find it difficult to travel in rural areas. A pilot trial in Inverness, Dingwall and Invergordon was taking place during our inquiry and we were told by the Minister for Welfare Delivery that this has been so successful that he believes this innovation ‘has potential to be rolled out across the United Kingdom.’230 Officials from the DWP explained that they knew there ‘will always be customers that will need to come in and see us’231 but this video call service allows those with the right skills and who know what they ‘wanted to do and, therefore, were able to do that over video.’232 As we understand it this pilot does not accommodate for Universal Credit claims to be made via this service but instead allows for claimants to meet with their work coach and discuss their situation whilst they are claiming Universal Credit.
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".