Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government continues to evaluate and consider how all our benefits are performing and what revisions we may need to make to regulations to make sure that they take into account the different situations of different families in different circumstances. The fact that we have brought the regulations to the committee today is evidence of that continued work to improve the benefits that we provide.

Pauline Torley might want to say a bit more about engagement or any other points that Mr Briggs has raised.

Yes, the guidance will be published to coincide with the amending regulations coming into force on 23 December. Organisations are being consulted. We intend to consult with the five family payments reference group, which includes the third sector, NHS and local government representation and the Child Poverty Action Group.

As I set out to Pam Duncan-Glancy, we continue to encourage parents with shared care to make the decision about who makes a claim. We shared the draft regulations with our stakeholder group and no feedback was received suggesting that people would be disincentivised.

Good morning. The regulations will make sure that the Scottish child payment and best start grant regulations align with our original policy intent of getting payments to the person who is responsible for the child.

The best start grant is aimed at giving children the best start in life by offering financial support to eligible families at key points in a child’s early years.

The Scottish child payment is the most ambitious child poverty reduction measure in the United Kingdom. It supports families on qualifying benefits who have children under six, and it will be extended to cover children under 16 by the end of 2022, if all goes to plan in getting the data that is required from the DWP. The Scottish child payment is already supporting 106,000 children through payments worth £40 every four weeks. As the First Minister announced earlier this week, those payments will increase to £80 in April next year.

The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland highlighted that, in a very small number of cases, the process for resolving competing cases under the Scottish child payment regulations did not award the person with responsibility for the child. A related issue arose with the best start grant where an award was made to someone who received the child element of universal credit, but someone else was caring for the child. Without the amendments in the regulations before the committee today, we would not always be able to pay the person who is responsible for the child.

Ordinarily, one person would receive the child responsibility benefit and the use of top-up powers would work to meet the policy intent, but it has recently become clear that that does not always happen in practice, so we are seeking to rectify the situation. Although the number of people who are affected is likely to be very low, we are seeking to make the changes in the regulations before us because it is the right thing to do.

Draft regulations were referred to the Scottish Commission on Social Security in September. Considering its workload, I was very grateful to receive its scrutiny report in October. We have accepted all the recommendations, and our response was laid in the Parliament on 12 November.

David Wallace, chief executive of Social Security Scotland, provided an update to SCOSS, in which he outlined how the agency responded to the problem of competing claims, in advance of the regulations being laid. He clarified how the agency would support the regulations through guidance. The agency will publish updated guidance to coincide with the regulations coming into force.

I remain extremely grateful to the Scottish Commission on Social Security for its scrutiny and recommendations, and I welcome the opportunity to assist the committee with its consideration of the regulations before us. I look forward to any questions that members may have.

I will take the second question first, which was about why a first-come, first-served approach was considered an acceptable backstop provision. It was not considered an acceptable backstop provision.

To give the wider context, the original Scottish child payment rules stated that a second applicant for a Scottish child payment who was not higher up the hierarchy of entitlement than a previous applicant would have their application rejected. In effect, that created a first-come, first-served rule for two applicants with the same qualifying criteria. However, it was not anticipated that two different people could both satisfy the top-tier qualifying criteria, which is why we needed to amend the regulations and why we have brought the amended regulations before the committee.

I should say that the reason why we did not anticipate that the situation could arise through the process of the original regulations is that it should not be possible for more than one individual to be in receipt of the qualifying benefit, with the associated child element, for the same child. Where universal credit is top of the hierarchy, only one person should get the child element and one person would get child benefit. We expected that, with any change in circumstances in which responsibility for the child moved, any associated benefits would move with the child, but it has now become clear that that is not always happening. That is in the DWP reserved system. Therefore, we have put forward the proposed amendments in response to considerations in the reserved system in relation to the reserved benefits that create the entitlement to the devolved benefits in question. That is the context.

On your other question, I have had a recent bilateral with Chloe Smith on the issue of the data for the second phase of the roll-out of the Scottish child payment. Officials from the Scottish Government and the DWP continue to be engaged in conversations around securing that data for the November 2022 timescale that we are working towards and to make sure that we progress in the fashion that is required to deliver in that timescale.

We will closely monitor the use of discretion in competing claims, as you would expect. There are currently processes and a number of meetings in place between agency and policy officials to discuss cases that are live at the moment. The existing provisions between the agency and policy officials will continue. The guidance will be published to coincide with the amending regulations coming into force on 23 December. We can consider that guidance thereafter if that is appropriate or helpful. The points around discretion need to be considered very carefully with regard to the development of that guidance and officials will be actively involved in engagement with the agency to make sure that that guidance is appropriate for the needs required.

Pauline Torley might want to say some more about that.

We encourage parents with shared care to decide who should make a claim. The number of people who will be affected by the changes to the rules is likely to be minimal, as I said in my opening statement. We do not anticipate that the proposed change will deter parents from undertaking shared care. We shared the draft regulations with our stakeholder group and no feedback was received about such an outcome, so I do not believe that our approach will disincentivise shared care.

That is certainly not the position that we envisage as things stand. As I set out in my opening statement and my previous answers, we are making these changes because of issues that have arisen as a result of the entitlement to reserved benefits and the effect that that has on our devolved benefits. We are making changes to make sure that the person with responsibility for the child receives the devolved benefit. We will continue to keep the regulations, as we do all our regulations and our benefits, under continuous review and seek to make improvements where appropriate and where possible.

That is an important point. The chair of SCOSS and I have discussed these issues and the amount of consideration that SCOSS has had to give to different sets of regulations over the recent period. We are very mindful of that. I have spoken previously at committee about the extra resourcing that we are providing to SCOSS in the period ahead. The ambition is to give SCOSS adequate time to evaluate as appropriate and as required.

We have faced a number of developments in recent months that have required evaluation and engagement from SCOSS that were not anticipated—for example, the regulations around those coming to the UK from Afghanistan required consideration quickly, and that was unexpected.

Is the ambition to reduce the demand on SCOSS in the period ahead? Yes. Are we grateful for SCOSS’s engagement and work over the last months? Absolutely. Will we continue to work constructively with SCOSS to make sure that it has the resources that it requires? Yes, we will.

There are wider considerations in Mr Balfour’s question around the qualifying benefit, which also relate to the regulations that are before us today. Of course, under the agency agreement, the DWP continues to deliver the carers allowance and the supplement and, this year, the additional payment, so the considerations are around the qualifying benefit.

The points that Mr Balfour raises are pertinent and important with regard to the development of the Scottish carers assistance in the period ahead, and we will publish our consultation on that shortly. These are points of consideration. I am happy to respond with any further points of information or interest above what I have said, but I can say right now that those issues will be considerations in the period ahead as we look at the development of Scottish carers assistance.