Chamber and committees

I thank Mr Choudhury for that question. I talked about that in my answer to Natalie Don. There are on-going considerations of the impact of the Scottish child payment on clients’ engagement with work, but there is no evidence of significant effects to date.

I urge colleagues, on the basis of our discussion today and what I said in my opening statement and more generally, to support the regulations. In particular, the uplift and extension of the Scottish child payment will make a significant difference for a lot of our constituents during this challenging time. There are various times during a parliamentary session when MSPs can make a difference for people, and I suggest that this is one of those moments. I strongly urge colleagues to support the regulations, given the positive impact that the increase in, and extension of, the Scottish child payment will have for many households at this challenging time.

I move,

That the Social Justice and Social Security Committee recommends that the Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendment and Transitional Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 be approved.

[Inaudible.]—considered. First of all, approximately 6,000 children will have “aged out”—that is the phrase that is used—in the 12 weeks prior to the launch date on 14 November. Approximately 3,000 children from that cohort will have their Scottish child payment claim ended at that point. The other 3,000 children are from households that have a younger child and will, therefore, still be in receipt of the Scottish child payment. Social Security Scotland will send specific SMS text messages and/or emails to that cohort of families to tell them that they need to reapply if their child has aged out. The rationale for that approach is that our user research testing showed that we need to keep our messaging simple and clear. The risk with unclear messaging is that some people who are eligible to receive the Scottish child payment might not apply for it. None of us wants that; we want people who are eligible to apply.

Our testing showed that, if we restart payments automatically for some clients, many others might assume that that applies to them, too, so they would fail to apply and therefore miss out. We decided that a straightforward approach would be for it to apply to everyone. As I mentioned, we will send a specific SMS text message and/or email to tell people that they need to reapply if their child has aged out. We will do that for the particular cohort that I have referenced. I hope that that reassures Mr Balfour.

As the member emphasised, our consultation is still live and closes today, and we encourage people to contribute to it. Once the consultation closes, officials will require some time to consider the feedback and the policy options. There are challenges relating to how we deliver in the future. We need to consider what powers the Scottish Government has and the technical capabilities for delivery. However, we are keen to make improvements when we can. We will aim to publish in early 2023 a response to the consultation, which will set out some of our next steps. As part of policy development, officials will consider whether there would be a benefit in modifying the legislative footing on which the Scottish child payment is based. That is certainly something that we will consider.

Does the member mean in a safeguarding capacity?

That is a very important question on which I will bring in Janet Richardson shortly. Before I do so, I emphasise to Mr Balfour and the committee more widely that Social Security Scotland is well prepared for the extension of the Scottish child payment, because it now has the necessary staff, processes, training and support either in place or scheduled imminently.

As Mr Balfour rightly emphasised, we expect a large influx of applications once the benefit is extended on 14 November, should Parliament pass the regulations. To help to manage that, at the same time, we are introducing improvements to reduce manual processing of Scottish child payment applications. We call that straight-through processing, and it should impact positively on processing times. Straight-through processing is through increased automation of processing of Scottish child payment applications. Once the payment is extended from 14 November to individuals who are responsible for children under 16, a high percentage of applications should be processed automatically without any manual intervention being required. The system will carry out all the checks that a client adviser would perform, so clients will not be treated differently if their application is processed by the system. Only eligible cases, with no outstanding actions or checks to be completed, will be processed to payment by that system.

If a client is not eligible or fails any of the automated checks for any reason, their case will be picked up by a client adviser to be processed manually. Any client who is awarded the Scottish child payment, after a decision is processed by that system, will have the same redetermination and appeal rights as a client whose decision was made by a client adviser. We are being very clear that no application will be denied by the straight-through system, because we have those proper checks and balances.

A combination of organisational preparation through staffing, training, straight-through processing and making sure that the agency is properly stood up for the anticipated increase in demand from 14 November, will make it a good client journey for the people of Scotland.

Janet, do you want to add anything to what I have said?

As I said, it is important that we also consider the wider context. There are individuals who are still to apply for the Scottish child payment, and we want to encourage them to apply. Our decision-making process has been based on our user research, which showed that, if we were to automatically engage that cohort in an application process to continue the payment, other people who might be eligible might think that they would be automatically registered for the Scottish child payment. That could mean that those who wrongly thought that they would be automatically enrolled would not apply.

We have to balance the situation between the needs of the people with children who are ageing out and those of the wider cohort, in the context of our wanting people to apply for the benefit. Therefore, the decision was made that, although we would not undertake a process of restarting automatically the Scottish child payment for children who have recently turned six, we will proactively contact their families and emphasise that they need to apply.

I am not sure how relevant that is to the regulations, but, in a moment, I will bring in Janet Richardson. I will elaborate as much as I can at this juncture, and I am happy to follow up on the point, if that would be helpful.

I maintain that the level of collaboration between Social Security Scotland and partner agencies—whether the NHS, local authorities or more widely—is strong. There are a number of aspects to consider with regard to the sharing of information and data protection, which members appreciate, I am sure, we need to be extremely careful about and mindful of. However, there are also safeguarding issues that the agency is engaging with and considerate of and that form an important aspect of our support for clients during the application process and more widely, where appropriate.

Janet, do you have anything to add? I am certainly happy to undertake to follow up these points with the committee through the committee convener, if that would be of interest.

Thank you. With regard to the implementation of the extension of the Scottish child payment, I clarify that the Scottish Government would like to have delivered that from day 1 of the Scottish child payment. It was actually our engagement with the DWP, the need to get the required data from it, the pressures on its side and the need to work with it collaboratively that delayed the process.

It is inaccurate and unfair for Scottish Labour to state that there has not been a determination from the Scottish Government to pay the Scottish child payment to under-16s as soon as possible. There absolutely has been that determination from the Scottish Government. That is why we implemented it for under-sixes as soon as possible. Otherwise, the whole Scottish child payment would have taken longer.

The delivery of the policy to under-sixes first, and then to under-16s as soon as we could, which required our having data from the DWP, was a position that was agreed in order to deliver the Scottish child payment as quickly as the Scottish Government could. Of course, the Scottish Government created the Scottish child payment using powers that it acquired as a result of making the case for more powers through the Scottish Parliament. It is important to bear those points in mind.

In the interests of time, I will not comment further, other than to say that I welcome the support of colleagues, despite their caveats, some of which I think are unfair.

I thank members for their support. I am glad that the committee intends to support the regulations, and I look forward to their being implemented and the difference that that will make for many people.