Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 103
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 in their evidence to us highlighted that they had a ‘number of concerns around the adequacy of the payment [on Universal Credit] even before coronavirus.’259 The Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People also said that the Scottish Government’s view on whether the £20 uplift should be made permanent and extended to legacy benefits was that it ‘absolutely should remain a permanent fixture and indeed extended to legacy benefits.’260 Additionally, in Scottish Government’s written evidence they ‘noted new research which estimates that removing the £20 uplift and reinstating the Minimum Income Floor261 in April 2021 would reduce spending on Universal Credit and Tax Credits in Scotland by nearly half a billion pounds in 2021/22, pushing 60,000 people, including 20,000 children, into relative poverty.’262 In written evidence, the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People, highlighted that she had ‘continually engaged with the UK Government in order to raise issues with the reserved elements of social security’263 and that part of that work included writing to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions along with her Welsh 251 Q64 252 Q84 253 Q109 254 Q110 255 Work and Pensions Committee, First Report of Session 2019–21, DWP’s response to the coronavirus, HC 178, Para 62 256 Department for Work and Pensions, ‘Covid 19 SSAC letter to the Secretary of State’, accessed 26 April 2021 257 Department for Work and Pensions, ‘Covid 19 SSAC letter to the Secretary of State’, accessed 26 April 2021 258 House of Lords, Universal Credit isn’t working: proposals for reform, Second Report of the Select Committee on Economics Affairs, Session 2019–21, HL 105, Para 129 259 Q139 260 Q139 261 An assumed level of earnings that the DWP uses to calculate benefit payments for self-employed people who are unable to work and are claiming Universal Credit as a result. 262 Scottish Government (WPS0013) 263 Scottish Government (W
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".