By Professor John Robertson

I don’t need to keep on reminding you, I’m sure, of the lower income tax most pay and the range of other indirect benefits of living in Scotland – lower council tax, free tuition, bus passes for the young, the Child Payment, Bedroom Tax compensation, massively subsidised thus cheap ferry travel….. The steady influx of settlers from elsewhere in the UK reinforces the evidence.

Today, another Scottish (SNP) Government initiative, within the limits of the devolution settlement:

Thousands more unpaid carers in Scotland will be eligible for a new benefit, if regulations laid this week in the Scottish Parliament are approved. 

Carer Support Payment is the replacement for Carer’s Allowance in Scotland. It was first launched in November 2023 in three pilot areas, Perth & Kinross, Dundee City and Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles). 

It will be available in 10 new local authority areas this summer as part of the next phase of the roll-out, starting with North and South Lanarkshire and Angus on 24 June. From August it will extend to Fife, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, and North, East and South Ayrshire and be available in the rest of Scotland in November. 

Since it launched Carer Support Payment, unlike [UK] Carer’s Allowance, is also available to carers aged 16-19 in full-time “advanced” education and carers aged over 20 in full-time education at any level.  

These regulations will see eligibility further extended to some 16-19-year-old carers in full-time “non-advanced” education, such as school, from 24 June. 

The new regulations also now include special backdating rules. This means that carers who are not getting Carer’s Allowance but are eligible for Carer Support Payment can have their payments backdated to the date Carer Support Payment first became available. This stops carers missing out on money they are entitled to because they live in an area included in the later phases of the rollout.

The main group to benefit will be carers aged 16-19 in full-time “advanced” education (such as university), and carers aged over 20 in full-time education at any level.

https://www.gov.scot/news/thousands-of-carers-in-scotland-to-get-new-benefit/

Makes me feel good, especially when I remember all the other SNP initiatives going back to 2007 (list needs updating).

From December 2023’s Funding the education of the disadvantaged – another way Scotland IS different

On a regular basis, Scotland’s media will scrabble around to find ways in which we should remember were are just like the rest of the UK. For example, where’s a surge in homelessness in another part of the UK, they’ll rush out to find one Scottish case and his mum to cry for the cameras.

Within the limits of the devolution funding arrangements, the SNP in government has done what it can to reduce inequality with more progressive taxation, the child payment and a range of other benefits to help disadvantaged groups.

On 11 December 2023, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) revealed:

Secondary schools with the most disadvantaged pupils saw spending per pupil fall by 12% in real terms between 2010 and 2021, compared with 5% for schools in the most affluent areas.

Amongst early years providers, extra funding for disadvantaged children has declined from a 60% add-on to the core hourly funding rate in 2017, down to about 38% extra in 2023.

These are among the main conclusions of the new ‘Annual Report on Education Spending in England: 2023’ by researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, published today and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. This year’s report has a special focus on geographical differences, and the levels of funding targeted at disadvantaged children and young people.https://ifs.org.uk/news/schools-serving-disadvantaged-children-have-faced-biggest-funding-cuts

There is no similar news from Scotland though I feel sure Reporting Scotland staff are currently looking for a head teacher who will claim that this happens here too.

What there is, in Scotland, is this evidence of a different approach:

Final allocations for Pupil Equity Funding, the Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund and National Programmes will be published in the Spring.

The investment of £43 million will be distributed equitably between 32 local authorities based on Children in Low Income Families data for the 2019/20 financial year. A full breakdown of allocations will be published in due course.

Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) was introduced in 2017-18 providing funding directly to 97% of schools in Scotland based on the number of P1-S3 pupils registered for free school meals, used as a proxy measure for socio-economic disadvantage.

The Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund was introduced in 2018-19 with funding allocated to all local authorities based on the number of looked after children they have in their care or schools aged between 5-15, but with the funding available to be invested to support all care experienced children and young people aged between 0-26.https://www.gov.scot/news/closing-the-attainment-gap-4/#:~:text=Pupil%20Equity%20Funding%20(PEF)%20was,measure%20for%20socio%2Deconomic%20disadvantage.

This clear difference can be added to the many reported earlier here, including:

Scotland IS a different place as its universities offer guaranteed places to care leavers

Abuse of women and the disabled far higher in England than in Scotland

Less homicide, less knife crime, less domestic violence, safer cities and now much lower alcohol problems: should Scotland’s old stereotypes be sent south?

Racial hate crimes increase by 33% in England & Wales while falling by 10% in Scotland: Who says we’re not different?

Scottish Muslim students far less likely to report abuse or crime?

Terror de-radicalisation referral rate in Scotland less than one third per capita of that in England

Only in Scotland! ‘A review of small country’s approaches to public policy reform in response to economic, demographic and other pressures found that only in Scotland could this ‘golden thread’ be so clearly discerned’

Scientific evidence that Scots tend to be different from the other groups in rUK?

Who said Scots were not more left-wing than those in the rest of the UK?

With 1 in 4 living wage employers already in Scotland, the Scottish Government aims to make this a ‘Living Wage Nation’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

80 000 lowest paid workers in NHS England still on poverty wages as NHS Scotland follows Scottish Government policy to pay a living wage to all public-sector employees

Scottish care workers to receive Living Wage for ‘sleepover’ hours while English care workers receive only the National Minimum Wage.

Different Scotland in the UN report on ‘Workhouse Britain’

Scottish values making oil and gas firms a tad different too?

Are Scotland’s employers also different – more willing to pay a decent wage?

With 1 in 4 living wage employers already in Scotland, the Scottish Government aims to make this a ‘Living Wage Nation’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

Another difference as UK small and medium-sized business people prefer Boris while Scots prefer…

Another difference between Scotland and rUK?

NHS England’s new motto: Who is laike us? Dem few and they err awl daid!

Scottish Government support for small businesses superior to that in non-Scottish parts of UK