Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of welfare reform on health inequalities in (a) Glasgow, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK.

The policy responsibility for welfare reform sits with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The Department of Health (DH) has not made a separate assessment of the effect of welfare reform on health inequalities in England or Scotland. It is for the Scottish Government to assess the impact of welfare reform in Scotland.

Although no assessment has been made in England, DWP has engaged across government on its proposals for welfare reform. DH has been involved in discussions on the introduction of Universal Credit and its impact on health inequalities for programmes such as Healthy Start and Help with Health Costs.

Healthy Start is a United Kingdom-wide statutory benefit, funded by DH, which aims to provide additional support to improve the diets of low income pregnant women and families with children under the age of four years. Currently, regulations are being put in place which will enable the scheme to function under Universal Credit. An equality analysis, which will include a consideration of the impact on health inequalities, will be published shortly.

Help with Health Costs is a set of arrangements which provide help with the cost of a range of National Health Services for example free NHS prescriptions or NHS dental treatment. On 1 November 2015, DH put in place criteria to determine entitlement to Help with Health Costs to those in receipt of Universal Credit. An equality analysis was produced to inform these changes, outlining the potential impact, including on health inequalities, on groups affected by the change from the previous benefits and tax credits exemption arrangements to the new criteria for Universal Credit exemption. A copy of the equality analysis is attached.