Chamber and committees

The Carer’s Allowance Supplement forecast in the Scottish Government budget is produced by the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC). Table 4.11 of the SFC’s December 2018 publication shows the number of individuals in Scotland expected to receive Carer’s Allowance in 2018-19 and the subsequent 5 years. For further details on how the SFC produces these figures, please refer to their December 2018 publication: http://www.fiscalcommission.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-december-2018/ .

The Scottish Government Advanced Learning and Science Directorate has been allocated £1.35m, to be distributed over the course of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan implementation period, to fund pilot projects based in further education settings and via the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS). £236,816 has currently been committed for Financial Year 2018-19. Of this funding, SAAS have received £150,000 to expand their Outreach Programme and Dundee and Angus college has been offered up to £86,816 in Academic Year 2018-19 to start work on a new project.

Funding provided to the college is to enable work to start in this academic year with the remainder of their funding and activity continuing in 2019-20. SAAS have been working to expand their existing outreach programme and have used this funding to target new groups. SAAS are tracking and analysing all digital activity linked to the programme.

To date, SAAS have worked with a range of stakeholders to raise awareness of available funding for at risk groups including lone parents, young families, ethnic minorities and families with disabled children. Specifically targeted activity includes; development of a financial assistance information video aimed at S2-S4 school pupils, expanded distribution of SAAS literature to include libraries, citizens advice bureaus, supermarkets and local authorities, literature produced in 8 languages and targeted community events, work with Job Centre Plus to upskill staff and claimants on available funding to learn, development of marketing products in collaboration with Young Scots Young People's Parenthood and Pregnancy Project and delivery of live streaming outreach events for rural areas with demographic and geo targeted digital advertising.

Before the end of the financial year, SAAS will also have rolled out posters to be displayed in supermarkets, continue to increase their presence in schools and deliver more live streaming events.

The Innovation Fund is a joint fund between the Scottish Government and the Hunter Foundation, each contributing £5m and £2.5m respectively over the life of Every Child, Every Chance .

Following an application process eight organisations were successful in securing funding from the fund. We also agreed with the Hunter Foundation to invest this financial year in organisations that form part of our Social Innovation Partnership (SIP) to allow them to expand the work they do to tackle child poverty. The following table details the organisations awarded funding, awards for 2018-19 and indicative awards, yet to be finalised, for 2019-20:

Measuring take-up accurately is not straightforward as it requires us to estimate the number of people who have not applied but may be eligible.

DWP produces estimates of the take-up of benefits at GB level for a range of means-tested benefits based on the Family Resources Survey data. However, Scottish breakdowns cannot currently be provided due to the limited Scottish sample size. The problem is amplified at local authority level. There is no published data on take-up rates for disability or carers benefits at UK level or Scottish level.

The Scottish Government recognises the work Citizens Advice Direct plays in the offering of advice and information to people across the country through the provision of telephone and online services. No equality impact assessment was undertaken as the agreement with Citizens Advice Direct is that there will be no reduction in staffing or service levels.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-21351 on 5 March 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Territorial NHS Boards received additional allocations of £51.6 million in 2017-18 and £50 million in 2018-19 to specifically reduce the number of patients experiencing long waits. This funding was allocated through the NHS Resource Allocation Formula (NRAC). Details of the funding received by each NHS Boards in each year, and an indication of the specialities and services these resources are being targeted at, are set out in the following tables.

Table 1: Additional Funding provided to Territorial Health Boards during 2017-18

' Every Child, Every Chance ' set out that £2 million funding would be provided over the period of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan (2018-22) to expand the innovative Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland programme. This programme is already being piloted in the Bridgeton and Dalmarnock areas of Glasgow, and more information can be found at www.childrensneighbourhoodsscotland.com .

A grant of up to £250,000 has been awarded in 2018-19 to support development of this work.

The Scottish Government will put in place a quarterly reporting system to monitor progress on, caseload and topics and unmet need. From the 1st of April, Citizens Advice Direct plan to introduce real time monitoring system and Scottish Government will be given access to the data.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People wrote to Guy Opperman MP, Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion on 19 February to outline the Scottish Government’s opposition to this policy change. We have asked that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) share with the Scottish Government details of the impact assessment for this policy, and to clarify the repercussions for Scottish citizens.

We currently await a response from the UK Government on this matter.