The next item of business is consideration of Parliamentary Bureau motion S6M-07459, in the name of George Adam, on approval of a Scottish statutory instrument.
Motion moved,
That the Parliament agrees that the Winter Heating Assistance (Low Income) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 [draft] be approved.—[George Adam]
17:02
I rise to speak about winter heating assistance, which is a new benefit that the Scottish Government is bringing in to replace a previous one. We have been waiting years for it. With regard to its design, the Scottish Government said that it would leave no one behind and that it would be more appropriate for Scotland. However, when the Social Justice and Social Security Committee took evidence just before Christmas, we heard a damning reflection of what the benefit would bring. Energy Action Scotland was very clear that the benefit will make people who are experiencing fuel poverty worse off than they would have been under the existing scheme. The benefit has been years in its design, yet it is making people worse off.
For many of the reasons that the member has stated, Scottish Labour abstained on the regulations in committee. Voting against them would have meant that people got nothing, so we abstained, and we will be doing so again today. The current system needs to be improved, but what is on offer is nowhere near what is needed. As the member has highlighted, the new system could leave approximately 120,000 people about £50 worse off this winter than they would have been in 2021, under the previous system, and we have already experienced the lowest temperatures in the past 10 years. That is exactly why organisations such as Energy Action Scotland have said that the new system will have less impact on fuel poverty than the one that it is set to replace.
Does the member agree that the Scottish National Party has had the potential to make a difference to people who are hardest hit by fuel poverty but that, instead, it has taken a half-hearted, ill-thought-through approach that leaves tens of thousands of people worse off?
I agree with what the member has said. The irony is that, as the committee was taking evidence regarding the regulations, the snow was falling outside and the temperature had plummeted. People in England and Wales were getting money in their pockets, yet, four days later, people in Scotland had received zero.
This benefit will particularly affect people with disability, as not all disabled people will get it. People who need the money because they stay in their houses longer than other people and therefore need to heat them for longer will miss out. We are calling on the Scottish Government to come up with a new scheme for next year that is designed to help vulnerable people in Scotland.
We heard evidence from Social Security Scotland and the minister about the lack of ministerial involvement in the design of the scheme. They seem to have been quite happy to leave it to their officials to do all the work and to simply not engage with the difficult issues. Perhaps most damning is the fact that, when giving evidence, neither the minister nor Social Security Scotland could guarantee that people would get their money in February—and why is that?
Mr Balfour says that we cannot guarantee that there will be a payment in February. Does he recognise that there is no guarantee that people anywhere will get a cold weather payment in any given year?
Wind up, please, Mr Balfour.
If the member looks, she will see that everyone got money in December after that four-day period, but there is no guarantee from the Scottish Government. That is why we, on the Conservative benches, will abstain in the vote on the regulations. We plead with the Government to think of the most vulnerable people and to come back to us with something new.
17:06
If Parliament passes the regulations today, around 415,000 people will be paid an annual and reliable benefit to support them with their winter energy bills each and every year. For 2022-23, that payment will be £50 and will be paid automatically from next month, as long as Social Security Scotland receives the necessary data from the DWP in a timely way. As I emphasised to the committee, it is critical that the DWP delivers on its commitment to provide client data to Social Security Scotland by the agreed date of 31 January.
The winter heating payment will be an improvement on the cold weather payment, which is the unreliable system that it replaces. Under that DWP scheme, to receive a single £25 payment, the eligible person has to live in an area where the average mean daily temperature is 0°C or below for seven consecutive days. The temperature is identified through 27 weather stations across the country, which often do not represent local conditions. Because of that, many people in Scotland have previously received little support through cold weather payments. However, people require support regardless of whether it is exceptionally cold for just under a week or marginally above 0°C.
The minister has highlighted some concerns around the weather stations and the cold weather payments. Did he have any conversations with the Met Office when trying to design a better system, or did he just decide that that would be too difficult?
I refer the member to my evidence to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on that issue and to the point that I have emphasised about the fact that the weather stations do not necessarily reflect the cold conditions in some places—particularly in the Highlands, where there have been low numbers of cold weather payments despite people feeling the cold due to wind chill and so on.
Our new benefit will provide guaranteed support regardless of the weather, so that people will not have to hope for a period of cold weather to be sustained to trigger a payment. Indeed, the winter heating payment will be an automatic and reliable payment that will support people with their energy bills this year and in winters to come.
I am aware that there has been a period of exceptionally cold weather this winter. However, I also know that that is not always the case. For example, last winter, no cold weather payments were made in the areas of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Shetland, Orkney, Wick or Fife. Indeed, last winter, only 11,000 people in Scotland received the DWP’s cold weather payment. By comparison, as I have already said, our winter heating payment will provide a reliable payment to 415,000 people on the lowest incomes, no matter the weather.
Between 2015-16 and 2021-22, an average of only £8.3 million was spent on cold weather payments in Scotland, which supported an average of 185,000 people.
The minister must wind up.
By comparison, our new, stable benefit will be an investment of more than £20 million next year for all those who are eligible, and we will uprate it in the next financial year.
Overall, the winter heating payment will be an improvement and will reliably support people more than the cold weather payment system has done. For those reasons and many others, I urge members to vote for the regulations today.
The question on the motion will be put at decision time.
The next item of business is consideration of a Parliamentary Bureau motion. I ask George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, to move motion S6M-07460, on approval of a Scottish statutory instrument.
Motion moved,
That the Parliament agrees that the Bankruptcy and Debt Arrangement Scheme (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 [draft] be approved.—[George Adam]
The question on the motion will be put at decision time.
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