Chamber and committees

Do you have any further questions, Pam?

Thank you. Members obviously have a lot of questions this morning.

As I have said, I call Jeremy Balfour. Can you take us into theme 4, Jeremy?

The question is, that motion S6M-06818, in the name of Ben Macpherson, be agreed to. Are we agreed?

Members: No.

There will be a division.

For

Don, Natalie (Renfrewshire North and West) (SNP)
Dornan, James (Glasgow Cathcart) (SNP)
McLennan, Paul (East Lothian) (SNP)
Roddick, Emma (Highlands and Islands) (SNP)

Abstentions

Balfour, Jeremy (Lothian) (Con)
Briggs, Miles (Lothian) (Con)
Choudhury, Foysol (Lothian) (Lab)
Duncan-Glancy, Pam (Glasgow) (Lab)

Thank you for that. The committee will report on the outcome of its consideration of the instrument in due course. I invite the committee to delegate authority to me, as convener, to approve a draft of the report for publication.

Members indicated agreement.

I thank the minister and his officials for attending this morning.

As the Deputy First Minister has outlined, the Scottish child payment will increase by 150 per cent, which should help to lift 50,000 children out of poverty. As we try to reach targets for reducing child poverty, the UK Government is taking action to push more people into poverty by causing inflation rises, by failing to act on soaring energy costs and much more. Can the Deputy First Minister expand on the action that is being taken in the budget to eradicate poverty and will he contrast that with the damage being done by the UK Government?

I thank the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee for bringing this important debate to the chamber today.

The starting point for the health committee’s inquiry is that

“health inequalities are a symptom rather than the cause of the problem. Health inequalities arise from the unequal distribution of income, wealth and power and the societal conditions this creates”.

Addressing socioeconomic inequality is a priority focus for the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. We have been exploring support for people who experience low income and debt, investigating whether policies to tackle child poverty are achieving that aim and scrutinising the delivery of social security to ensure that it provides a vital safety net for those who need it.

Health inequality is a long-standing issue. Entrenched poverty can have a generational impact and it adversely affects every aspect of someone’s life. Child poverty impacts on children’s ability to enjoy their childhoods and achieve their aspirations. Low-income households spend more of their money on essentials and often have little or no disposable income to cover a rise in costs. Those extremely difficult circumstances have been compounded by the cost of living crisis.

As Gillian Martin said, certain groups are more likely to experience poverty and, therefore, experience worse health outcomes. Disabled people are disproportionately more likely to be living in poverty and make up 48 per cent of the total number of people in Scotland who live in poverty. Disabled people and families with disabled children face extra costs of more than £1,000 a month. Women are more likely than men to be in poverty. Their experiences of poverty are directly tied to their experiences of the labour market and social security and in relation to their undertaking caring roles.

With regard to lone parents specifically, the following example from our fuel poverty focus group details the punishing decisions that one lone parent faces daily:

“Heating is a no go. I use energy for cooking, washing and lights. I keep a note of the units I’m using, but the bills keep going up and up. The heating is on for a maximum of 30 minutes, and I stay under a blanket with a hot water bottle to keep warm. I’m living on an income of just over £7,000 for 3 people, without food banks we wouldn’t survive. I’m on 25 painkillers a day and eat one meal a day as I want the best for my kids. My mental health is getting worse, and my health is getting worse—I hate winter, the temperatures are dipping”.

That is just one example of the many people who are in crisis. Our inquiry into low income and debt underlined the strong links between poverty, debt and poor mental health. Social stigma is highlighted as a significant barrier to seeking support, which increases the impact on mental health. The Scottish Association for Mental Health explained that the drivers for suicide can include

“feelings of humiliation, entrapment and hopelessness, all of which are very common amongst people in problem debt.”

People living in poverty are more likely to live in disadvantaged neighbourhoods and in overcrowded or unsuitable housing, and homelessness is both a cause and the result of social inequality, health inequality and poverty.

Homeless people experience poorer physical and mental health than the general population does, and the complex needs and circumstances of many people who experience homelessness make accessing housing and other services, including health services, more difficult. The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s report highlights the essential connection between access to safe, secure and affordable housing and achieving positive health and wellbeing outcomes.

Key findings from our committee’s work also show the need for suitable, sustainable housing. Others include early identification of the threat of homelessness to enable prevention. Those actions, alongside better integration of support services, all contribute to minimising homelessness and its impact.

Social security can do some of the heavy lifting in the short term, but to tackle poverty and the symptoms of poverty, such as health inequality, there needs to be a comprehensive radical, long-term and targeted economic approach. My committee will continue to work to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our society.

We have spent quite a lot of time on the first section of questions, so I will perhaps need to hurry people along a little bit more as we move on.

We move to theme 2, which is on the level of payment, and I bring in Paul McLennan.

Jeremy, I will go straight back to you to lead us on to theme 4, which is on the qualifying date.