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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 11 August 2025
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Displaying 1311 contributions

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Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Benefit Take-up Strategy

Meeting date: 11 November 2021

Jeremy Balfour

May I come back to a point that my colleague Miles Briggs made about the funeral support payment? I should declare that I am the convener of the cross-party group on funerals and bereavement. In my initial conversations with funeral directors, they were very positive about filling out the form for the payment and they felt that the process was working well. Again, the 59 per cent take-up rate for the funeral support payment surprises me. What are we going to do to get to the other 41 per cent who have not taken up that payment? I appreciate that some people have organised their own funerals and will not fall into that category, but I do not think that the percentage will be that high. I might have missed this, minister—I apologise if so—but what are we going to do about that? Is there a geographical breakdown of that data? Is it more likely that people in central Scotland are claiming compared with people in the Borders or the Highlands? Is that data being recorded by Social Security Scotland and, if so, could we see a breakdown of those figures?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Benefit Take-up Strategy

Meeting date: 11 November 2021

Jeremy Balfour

Good morning, minister, and good morning to your team. It is good to have you back at the committee again.

On page 48 of the strategy document, there is a commitment

“to undertake a review of Adult Disability Payment in summer 2023”.

Will that review look at whether the transition has been safe and secure, and whether it has been done with dignity, fairness and respect? Will it review the descriptors of what ADP might look like in the future? How wide will the review be?

I also ask you to look into your crystal ball. Depending on what the recommendations are and whether there is agreement on them, is your initial thinking that they will be implemented by the Parliament during this session, or are you looking to next session?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Homelessness and Rough Sleeping (Session 6 Priorities)

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Jeremy Balfour

To pick up on some of those themes, I have had a number of meetings with women’s groups, particularly in Edinburgh and the Lothians. There are concerns about women and children being put in temporary accommodation that is just not suitable. There may be single men there, or no proper kitchen facilities. The spaces may be unsafe.

Gordon MacRae, what is Shelter’s view on how Scotland is providing for homeless families? How could we do that differently, particularly for women and children?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Homelessness and Rough Sleeping (Session 6 Priorities)

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Jeremy Balfour

Perhaps he is on mute or taking a break.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Homelessness and Rough Sleeping (Session 6 Priorities)

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Jeremy Balfour

I direct my question to either Lorraine McGrath or Gordon MacRae. It is on the lessons that have been learned in the past 18 months, during the pandemic. It is clear that a lot of work was done around homelessness, and we almost saw the end of people being on the streets at all for a period last year.

My question is quite broad. What lessons have we learned from that? Have we—local authorities, the third sector and the Scottish Government—regressed even since then? Have we learned those lessons, and are we now implementing that learning as we go forward? Perhaps Gordon MacRae can start, followed by Lorraine McGrath.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Homelessness and Rough Sleeping (Session 6 Priorities)

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Jeremy Balfour

I would be happy for someone else to jump in if Gordon cannot answer or if he cannot hear us. I am conscious of time.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 28 October 2021

Jeremy Balfour

I am grateful for that helpful explanation, minister.

I do not want to hold back the committee’s considerations for too long—I understand that this is quite technical stuff—but I am slightly unclear about a certain point. I know that there are different criteria for deciding whether someone gets DLA or PIP, but my understanding—perhaps you can help me by providing more information later—was that the criteria with regard to CDP and ADP would be the same. I did not appreciate that the criteria for the awards will be different, so I wonder whether you can explain the issue a bit further in a letter to me. As I said, I do not want to delay the committee’s considerations—obviously, we are going to agree to the motion today—but I wonder whether it would be possible to provide an explanation, just for my information.

My next question—you will be glad to hear that it will be my final one—relates to the use of the phrase “throughout the night” with regard to awards. I remember raising this issue when the proposals were originally brought forward, and I note that you have changed things back to what they were. I welcome that, but I have to wonder why it all happened in the first place. Did you make the change because of consultation, because it had been a simple drafting error or because of some great intervention by back-bench łÉČËżěĘÖ?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 28 October 2021

Jeremy Balfour

Yes.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 28 October 2021

Jeremy Balfour

I want to move on to two more technical areas, the first of which relates to the recommendation, which you have not accepted, that people receiving CDP be eligible for short-term assistance if they are moving on to ADP. Why have you said no to that? We have said—and rightly so—that we want to treat people with dignity, fairness and respect but, given that they are already in the system and have already proved that they need the assistance, those receiving CDP should be treated as transferring to ADP instead of as new claimants. Why are we making them go back and reapply? It seems to me that we are not treating people with the respect that we had hoped for.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 28 October 2021

Jeremy Balfour

I have a policy difference with you, minister, in that, for me, the way to resolve the issue would have been to give any child who was on DLA or PIP the winter heating allowance. They would not have to be on the highest rate. I think that I made that point in committee in the previous session of the Parliament.

If we are talking about heating your house, you often do that during the day. It is not often at night, when you are in bed and can have less heating on. The draft regulations still exclude children who are on the lower rate of DLA or not on the higher rate of PIP from getting the payment. Why are you doing that if we are trying to help people who have higher heating costs? They are vulnerable individuals as well. What is the policy intent behind that?