Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Recommendation 93
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We pay tribute to the DWP employees during this very difficult time in managing and handling the huge increase of people accessing welfare because of the covid-19 pandemic. The digital by default system has withstood the pressure placed on it during the pandemic, although, the DWP should look to offer other options of support for those who require it—especially with expected job losses set to increase as the year progresses and the anticipated conclusion of the furlough scheme at the end of September 2021—which will likely bring further demands on Universal Credit through natural migration (and managed migration if and when that process starts) of individuals still in receipt of legacy benefits.
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".