Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 (Disability Assistance, Young Carer Grants, Short-term Assistance and Winter Heating Assistance) (Consequential Provision and Modifications) Order 2021

Lord Falconer of Thoroton Excerpts

Tuesday 29th June 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab) [V]]

I wish to express my gratitude to the Minister for her clear explanation of the terms of this order and her openness in advance of today’s debate in making available to me any information that I needed in relation to it. I am grateful for that.

We do not oppose this order. It is necessary to make various provisions introduced by the Scottish Government under the 2018 Act work. There are no particular points that I wish to draw attention to in relation to the order. However, I want to make three general points.

First, the implementation of the social security powers under the 2018 Act in Scotland should be moving at a much faster pace. When the Scottish Government announced the Scottish child payment policy back in 2019, they said that 170,000 children could benefit, but the Scottish Government’s priority appears to be announcements, not delivery. As a result, families only started to receive their first payments more than 20 months after the SNP Government said that they would offer them.

The Scottish Welfare Fund should act as a lifeline to many. However, many third-sector organisations have mounting evidence that the fund is offering neither adequate nor accessible support, with best-practice models of delivery not always implemented. These concerns have been highlighted further during the pandemic. It is time for a full independent review of the Scottish Welfare Fund, examining its delivery with a focus on local authority administration costs, the standard and consistency of the service provided, and access to and promotion of the fund. A report late last year revealed that, in some local authorities, up to 69% of crisis grant applications had been rejected.

The devolution of some social security powers under the 2018 Act was supposed to create a more caring benefit system, yet the SNP has delayed on transferring the powers and is failing to use them properly to tackle poverty. Almost a third of Scottish children with a disabled family member are growing up in poverty, according to the Child Poverty Action Group. We have called for an additional £5 per week on top of the Scottish child payment for families with someone who has a disability in order to help to alleviate poverty. There were far too many people living in poverty before the pandemic, and there can be no doubt that the pandemic must have made things much worse.

We believe that the Scottish Parliament should act harder and faster to tackle both in-work and out-of-work poverty. This should be an absolute priority of the Parliament. The SNP has not used the full powers available to it to tackle poverty and inequality. We need to shift from merely transitioning benefits to the Scottish Parliament and start reforming the eligibility and adequacy of benefits so that people across Scotland have enough income to live a life of proper dignity. It is the responsibility of both the Scottish and the UK Governments to work towards the eradication of poverty. We strongly condemn the welfare policies of the current Tory Government at Westminster, including the two-child cap and the potential end to the £20 uplift in universal credit, which exacerbate poverty.

As is clear, these are general points. As I have indicated already, we do not oppose the making of this order.