Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 107
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)
Should a claimant earn more than their work allowance, their Universal Credit payments will be reduced at a rate (known as a taper rate) of 63p for every £1 earned.275 However, since 2015 ‘only people with limited capability for work, or, people with a child or children are entitled to a Work Allowance’276 as a result of the Universal Credit Work Allowance Amendment Regulations.277 This means that claimants without children or a limiting health condition are not entitled to any work allowance: consequently, as soon as they start earning money from a job, they are subject to the taper rate as described above. Written evidence from Citizen’s Advice Scotland noted that a majority of people ‘new’ to their benefit advice services since April 2020 are currently impacted by this policy choice, where ‘Over 6 in 10 (62%) of the clients seeking Universal Credit advice for the first time since April do not have children nor a limiting health condition/disability–therefore will not be entitled to any Work Allowance.’278
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".