Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 137
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 released its own evaluation of Universal Credit Scottish Choices in March 2021. The evaluation did accept that ‘overall awareness of the term ‘Scottish choices’ among the people on Universal Credit interviewed for this research was low.’334 The Scottish Government thought that Scottish Choices could be ‘better publicised.’335 The evaluation also noted that there was confusion on the twice monthly payment option around payment dates, such as when the second payment in the month would be made and the amounts being paid as well as how the direct payment to landlord option works for those whose Universal Credit housing element does not cover full rent.336 Waiting to access Scottish Choices
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".