Chamber and committees

Inflation will clearly have an impact on Government priorities. If inflation squeezes household budgets as well as affecting the delivery of social security benefits, it will surely also affect the Government’s considerations.

Many thanks—that is helpful. Marie McNair has a supplementary question.

Our next item is an evidence session on the committee’s pre-budget work in preparation for the Scottish Government’s publication of its 2022-23 budget. I am pleased to see that we have our first panel of witnesses online today. The focus of the first panel is to take a broader look at the budget and to further explore child poverty targets. The focus of the second panel is the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s forecast social security spend, particularly its forecast for the adult disability payment.

I welcome to the meeting our first panel of witnesses, who are joining us remotely: Eilidh Dickson, policy and parliamentary manager at Engender; Satwat Rehman, director of One Parent Families Scotland; Jon Sparkes, chief executive at Crisis; and Lawrie Morgan-Klein, public affairs officer at StepChange. Thank you very much for joining us.

I have a few housekeeping points to mention before we kick off. Please allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on your microphones before you start to speak. Witnesses can indicate with an R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans or simply with a show of their hand if they wish to come in on a question. Do not feel that you have to answer every question if you have nothing new to add to what has already been said by others; that is okay, too. We have around an hour for this session and, as I have intimated to them already, could colleagues in the committee direct their questions to whichever witness they would prefer to answer, or to all the witnesses, whichever the case may be?

Pam Duncan-Glancy will ask the first set of questions.

As that is directed to all panellists, could I start with Eilidh Dickson, please, followed by Jon Sparkes, Satwat Rehman and Lawrie Morgan-Klein?

Thank you, that is very helpful. Lawrie Morgan-Klein, you are next.

Thank you. Of course, that debt spiral is exacerbated when you consider that sheriff officer costs are added to the arrears of the tenant rather than being absorbed by the local authority or whoever it may be.

Mr Briggs has a supplementary question, and then I will bring in Mr Sparkes.

I am conscious of the fact that Professor Ulph was looking to come in at an earlier stage, so perhaps you could address both those aspects, Professor Ulph.

I want to be clear about what you said about people remaining on ADP for longer. Is that because the difference between PIP and ADP is such that there is an expectation of longer awards?

We move on to questions from Emma Roddick.

Do any members have supplementary questions?