Chamber and committees

Agenda item 2 is the draft Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2022. The draft regulations were laid on 16 March, replacing the draft that was laid on 28 January. At our meeting on 17 March, the minister told the committee that the original draft regulations had been withdrawn, following the Scottish Government’s decision to uprate some benefits by 6 per cent this year.

I welcome to the meeting Ben Macpherson, the Minister for Social Security and Local Government. The minister is joined remotely by Scottish Government officials. Simon Coote is the head of the cross-cutting policy unit, Camilo Arredondo is a solicitor and Dominic Mellan is an economic adviser for social security analysis. I invite the minister to make an opening statement.

Thank you, minister. Have you completed your questioning, Pam?

The next item of business is an evidence session on case transfer, with the Minister for Social Security and Local Government. The session will allow members to discuss arrangements for case transfer, from DWP to Social Security Scotland, of people who are on disability benefits. The minister is joined by Scottish Government officials. Kate Thomson-McDermott, who is unit head of carer benefits and case transfer policy, joins us in the committee room. David Hilber is the team leader in case transfer policy, Kayleigh Blair is a solicitor and Jane Goodier is senior lead for disability and carers benefits at Social Security Scotland, and they join us online.

I welcome you all to the meeting and invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

We move to questions from Emma Roddick, who joins us in the room, followed by Natalie Don, who will join us remotely.

Thank you, minister. We move to a question from Pam Duncan-Glancy, who joins us remotely.

Thank you.

Before we move to the next set of questions, I have a question about an issue that was raised with us in our informal session with kinship carers. Some people care on an informal basis and are deemed to be ineligible for any support, so a national rate will perhaps not help them. They have asked us to look into that specific issue. Is there any way in which that will change?

That is helpful. Thank you.

Our last theme is further supports for kinship care families. I think that the first question comes from Jeremy Balfour. No—I am getting a sign that his question has been answered, so we will go back to Pam Duncan-Glancy on that topic, to be followed by Marie McNair.

Before I bring in Pam Duncan-Glancy, I have a question on the back of Jeremy Balfour’s questions.

A handful of people have contacted me in the past couple of weeks because they were expecting to be on a natural transfer pathway from PIP to ADP but are now all of a sudden being triggered with reviews from the DWP that they were not expecting. Although they had letters that said that they would not be reviewed until the end of 2022, there seems to be a flurry of people in that situation. Will those individuals now be subject to a managed transfer process, which will mean that it will be slightly longer before they get on to ADP? There seems to be a lot of confusion among people who are now subject to reviews that they were not expecting.

I am definitely happy to write to you on that, minister. It is reassuring that you have not noticed a trend in that regard. That is helpful.

Thank you, minister. As we have been talking, you have answered a number of other questions that members had, so I have been getting a flurry of messages on my phone to say that they have no further questions. Therefore, that brings us to the end of this evidence session. I thank you and your officials for coming this morning and giving evidence.

I will suspend the meeting briefly to allow for a changeover of witnesses.