By stewartb

On 4 March 2024 the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP wrote to the Secretary of State for Work, the Rt Hon Mel Stride MP on the subject of child poverty and support for the most vulnerable. What follows are extracts from her letter.

Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/child-poverty-support-vulnerable-letter-uk-government/

‘Ahead of the Spring Budget, I am writing to set out key actions which we are calling on the UK Government to take to tackle child poverty and support the most vulnerable in our society. In Scotland, we are doing everything within the scope of our powers and limited budget to tackle poverty and meet our ambitious child poverty targets.’

• ‘… 100,000 fewer children will live in relative poverty in 2024-25 as a result of Scottish Government’s policies, with relative poverty levels 10 percentage points lower than they would have otherwise been.’
• ‘In the year ahead we will invest a record £6.3 billion in social security benefits to support the most vulnerable in our society, a full £1.1 billion more than the UK Government gives to the Scottish Government for social security. This includes investment in our Scottish Child Payment, which will increase in value by inflation to £26.70 per eligible child, per week, from April 2024.
• Together with our three Best Start Grant payments and Best Start Foods, our Five Family Payments could be worth over £10,000 by the time an eligible child turns 6 and around £25,000 by the time an eligible child turns 16. This compares to less than £2,000 for families in England & Wales.’

The Cabinet Secretary spells out a number of ‘wants’ within Westminster’s reserved powers:
– ‘INTRODUCE AN ESSENTIALS GUARANTEE – …. there is considerable evidence that the current level of social security support is not sufficient and is leading to unnecessary hardship across the UK.’
– ‘REVERSE PUNITIVE WELFARE POLICIES – abolish the two-child limit, benefits cap, the bedroom tax, and both the young parent penalty and five week wait in Universal Credit.
– ‘.. the Scottish Government is already prioritising our limited resources on mitigating the benefits cap and bedroom tax, with around £1 billion spent on mitigating welfare reforms in the last 14 years. Scottish Government analysis estimates that reversing the two child limit, together with reintroducing the Family Element in Universal Credit, would lift a further 10,000 children out of relative poverty in Scotland’
– ‘COMMIT TO ENSURING LOCAL HOUSING RATES CONTINUE TO MEET BASIC RENT LEVELS – The freeze to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates has also had a significant effect on households in Scotland. In August, LHA rates did not cover the rents of over 40,000 households in Scotland. … end the uncertainty that households have when taking out a tenancy and commit to ensuring that LHA rates will be sufficient to meet these basic rent levels in future years.
– ‘ABOLISH SANCTIONS AND ENHANCE ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SUPPORT WHEN STARTING WORK – … in Scotland, we have taken a different approach to devolved employability support; our services remain voluntary, and we want the support we provide to be seen as an opportunity, not a threat, with fairness, dignity and respect at its heart. There is considerable evidence that conditionality, and in particular the use of sanctions, is counterproductive in efforts to support people into sustainable work and causes unnecessary hardship. I call for you to urgently abolish the use of sanctions in the social security system.
– ‘REVERSE PLANNED WORK CAPABILITY ASSESSMENT CHANGES – …. Removing the Work Capability Assessment risks conflating incapacity and disability payments – not everyone who is sick and not able to work will qualify for disability payments. There is no safety net for people with short-term ill-health and sickness to manage their condition and live a dignified, independent life. I call on you to stop the implementation of these changes which will lead to disabled people and those with long-term health conditions losing out financially.
– ‘PROMOTE UPTAKE OF RESERVED BENEFITS – In Scotland, we actively and vigorously encourage people to apply for the benefits they are eligible for and strive to make applying as easy as possible. … It is estimated that in the region of £19 billion of social security support and social tariffs go unclaimed in the UK each year. … I urge you to follow our lead and commit to taking the steps needed to increase uptake of UK Government benefits across the country.

The letter concludes: ‘There is no single action in isolation that can bring an end to poverty in the UK. However, as demonstrated in Scotland, with clear focus and determination, change is possible. Poverty lies at the heart of many of the key challenges faced across our communities and I urge you to use the Spring Statement to introduce the policies urgently needed. I am copying this letter to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Secretary of State for Scotland for awareness.’

Of course the mainstream media in Scotland leave voters here wholly unaware of what the Scottish Government is attempting to achieve through urging change on Westminster and on its reserved policies.