Chamber and committees

We started from the point of view that, although we have some ideas, we do not have all the answers. That is why we have been consulting with a wide range of stakeholders, seeking to build on the robust evidence base that was established during the life of the first delivery plan.

We have also sought views directly from the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, as the principal committee with the remit in, expertise on and oversight of the work; however, we very much welcome the views of other committees, third sector organisations, local government and people with lived experience. We have been working with the Poverty and Inequality Commission, which has also been working with those who have lived experience, to co-develop and test some policy proposals, in advance of publishing the plan next month.

In that way, we have looked at how we support the six priority family types. Those account for around 90 per cent of all children in poverty in Scotland so, if we can do better by those families and come up with solutions that are going to work for them, we can dig deep into child poverty.

For example, on the employability side, we have been looking at how we create more bespoke solutions for families. If they had already found it easy to navigate and get into employment from the position that they are in, they would have done so. We need to understand the barriers. Some of those barriers are financial, but some are about childcare or transport costs. We need to understand that and put in place wraparound solutions that will make the difference and open doors that have previously been closed.

We also need to look at the costs that families face and at how we can reduce those, in the current climate of increasing living costs, and, what is important, make sure that people get the support that they are entitled to, through Social Security Scotland.

That is the approach that we are taking, and I am hopeful that it will give us the best possible chance of meeting the interim targets.

We absolutely are having those conversations. That issue features as a backdrop to all our discussions about the child poverty delivery plan and what we can do to support families. I will outline some of the areas that could make the difference.

It is worth repeating that, during the pandemic, which has been a tough period, we have focused a lot of support on low-income families. In 2020-21, we invested about £2.5 billion in supporting low-income households, and nearly £1 billion of that investment went directly to supporting children. In 2022-23, we are committing more than £3.9 billion in benefit expenditure, which will provide support to more than 1 million people. I note that that is more than £360 million above the level of funding that we received from the UK Government through block-grant adjustments. We have found money outwith that funding to put into benefit expenditure. We have had to make difficult choices, but trying to put as much money as possible into people’s pockets at the moment is important.

By the end of October last year, we had provided direct financial support to more than half a million households through the £130 pandemic support payments. I mentioned the Scottish child payment. That will double from April this year and benefit around 111,000 eligible under-sixes. We are continuing to invest in discretionary housing payments. The £80 million includes around £68 million to fully mitigate the bedroom tax and protect more than 70,000 Scottish households. There is also £41 million for the Scottish welfare fund.

In addition to all that, over the winter, I announced a package of £41 million for a winter support fund to help people to heat their homes and meet rising food costs. Some of that money has gone out through local government and some has gone out through third sector organisations. We are continuing to deliver the £520 bridging payments to more than 143,000 children who are eligible for free school meals.

As the First Minister said last Thursday, we are looking at how we spend every penny of the additional consequentials, which are reported to be around £290 million, to support people with escalating costs. We want to do that in a way that helps the most vulnerable.

Obviously, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy will confirm plans for further investment during the final stages of the Budget (Scotland) Bill, but we have looked at every way of trying to support people during these difficult times. If there is more that we can do, we will try to do it, but we are working within a fixed budget. Energy price regulation sits with the UK Government. We are trying to focus our attention on household costs and financial support for people, and I hope that I have given a flavour of that.

As I indicated earlier, discussions are still on-going on the best way of utilising them. We already have a council tax reduction scheme in place, and we have had for a number of years. That ensures that no one has to pay a council tax liability that they cannot be expected to afford. That is not the case down south. We have something in place that others are looking to do an element of.

We are having on-going discussions on how we can ensure that the money has the biggest impact on those who need it most. The plans for how we will support families will be set out in short order. Various options are being considered. The starting point for the discussion is how the money can have the biggest impact on those who are most in need.

We have called for things that we think would have the biggest impact. We have said that a cut in VAT on energy bills would be one of the simplest means of helping energy consumers in the short term. There are other levers that could be used more effectively.

We are looking at the options, and the plans will be announced in due course.

Sorry—it might be a bit cheeky of me, but when you talked about the cost-of-living crisis and I referred to supports, it was remiss of me not to plug the moneysupport.scot website, which refers to a myriad of supports for people. We ask members to disseminate word of moneysupport.scot and the national helpline of 0800 111 4000, where people can find out how to get help in the current circumstances.

Our council tax reduction scheme currently protects more than 470,000 low-income households in Scotland from council tax bills, according to need and ability to pay. There is no equivalent approach in England, where, from 2013, council tax support was localised to individual local authorities. Our council tax reduction scheme has maintained support since the abolition of council tax benefit in 2013, and funding for it has exceeded local authority costs by more than £97 million in the past three years. I would say that we are doing what we can with those costs.

The Government is looking at how we support families with some of the consequential money that has come from the United Kingdom Government’s response to the cost of living. We will always look at what more we can do. In the budget, we have tried to strike a balance and focus on how we support low-income families at a time of rising costs. We cannot do everything, and we cannot mitigate every aspect of decisions that are made elsewhere, but we can try to focus that support as best we can.

Clare Haughey might want to talk about childcare.

Tenants have rights and responsibilities—that is the first thing that we would all acknowledge. Strengthening tenants’ rights on the affordability side is a matter of considering appropriate controls on rent levels. There is an important consultation out about how that is done.

Rent levels vary across Scotland. We recognise that the housing market in the Edinburgh area, where we are sitting, is very different from the housing market for rent and purchase in other areas of Scotland. When we consider rent controls, different local circumstances must be recognised.

Affordability is important, and we must ensure that people can afford rents. The private rented sector will continue to have an important role to play.

“Housing to 2040” sets out the ambition for where we want to get to and shows that, if we get this right, there should be no visible difference between tenures. If we get the quality of property standards to the same level, get the rights and responsibilities correct and ensure that rents are affordable across all sectors, we can drive up the quality of standards. Good landlords have nothing to fear from the changes, because many of them already provide a good-quality service to their tenants. There is a package of measures.

That is, without a doubt, an important area. I will set out a few things that I hope are relevant. We continue to invest in the young persons guarantee to ensure that young people have opportunities. There is a guarantee to provide a job, a place in education or training or a formal volunteering opportunity for every young person. In 2022-23, an additional £45 million will be provided for that work.

Since the end of January, nearly 1 million five to 21-year-olds who live in Scotland have been eligible to benefit from free bus travel, which helps young people to connect with employment and training. It helps socially, too.

We are delivering our job start payment for young people to help with the cost of starting a job. The payment is worth just over £252 for a single young person and more than £400 for someone who is the main carer of children. Through that payment, we have helped about 1,800 young people with the cost of starting a new job.

Young mothers—one of the priority family types that we talked about earlier—are a particular focus. They will benefit from support and targeted interventions such as family nurse partnerships, which are about getting alongside young single parents and supporting them in their journey.

We need to look at what more we can do. If there is more that we can do to support young adults, we will consider that. Does Clare Haughey want to add anything?

I think that there are. A lot of third sector wraparound support is focused on lone parents, and there are specific supports—again, particularly through third sector organisations—for black and minority ethnic families. However, I think that we could do better at understanding the barriers, particularly to employability. There is also evidence that some families are still not aware of the available supports that they are entitled to. We need to understand why that is and to overcome the barriers to their accessing that financial support.

There are other issues, too, such as whether, through the affordable housing supply programme, we are building enough homes that are large enough for families that require, for example, four or five bedrooms. We could be better at that. There is also the need to keep the cost of a home in the social rented sector substantially lower than the cost in the private rented sector, so we need to think about how to reduce costs, as well.

The employability area, which is underdeveloped, is a very strong focus for us in the delivery plan. We recognise that, if we are going to help families to move into the world of work, we need to understand the barriers for all those families and that they will be different from one another. We are trying to tailor that support to meet families’ particular needs. If we can do that more effectively, we could really begin to help families. We are looking at using test sites to work with families and see what works. A lot of work is going on around that, and I will be happy to furnish the committee with more information once it is ready to go live.

That might be a question for Clare Haughey.

I am happy to keep the committee informed about that, if it would be helpful.