Recommendation 145

The Scottish Government told us that they believe the roll out of the two further Scottish Choices options is being delayed because the DWP is not prioritising this work in the devolution programme. The Cabinet Secretary explained that she accepts that the ‘devolution programme is but one of the aspects that the DWP works on’359 but that the Scottish Government would have preferred to see ‘much faster movement’360 on the two further Scottish Choices options. The Cabinet Secretary went on to highlight that the Scottish Government ‘cannot influence overall welfare policy’361 on reserved benefits such as Universal Credit and that if the DWP ‘doesn’t like what we [Scottish Government] would like to do it does not have to implement our intended solutions’.362 The Cabinet Secretary even went as far as suggesting that the split payment Scottish Choice may not be realised at all because the DWP do not wish to implement this choice.363