Chamber and committees

The Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland Scheme: an evidence review published in September 2008, was a research paper which provided an evaluation of the scheme to inform policy development, but did not make specific recommendations.

A total of £50,000 has been allocated to support the implementation of the delivery plan for financial education. Learning and Teaching Scotland has contributed £25,000 from its existing resources and the Scottish Government has allocated a further £25,000 in this financial year.

A high level, policy-based response to the UK Green Paper, Shaping the Future of Care Together, is being drafted by the Health and Community Care Delivery Group. The membership of this group includes the following organisations: COSLA, Association of Directors of Social Work, City of Edinburgh Council, Perth and Kinross Council, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian, NHS Health Scotland and the Care Commission. The draft response will be signed off jointly by Scottish ministers and COSLA.

The UK Department of Health has an extensive interactive consultation running on a dedicated website. Any individual or interest group in the UK can post comments and responses to the consultation up until it closes on the 13 November. I understand that Scottish voluntary organisations are fully aware of the paper and that some of them may be responding to the consultation.

Information on the number of children living in a household with an annual income of under £16,000 affected by the extension of free school meals is not held centrally.

The extension to free school meals extends eligibility to households in receipt of both maximum child tax credit and maximum working tax credit and income under £6,420 (as assessed by HMRC in 09-10). Using 2007-08 data provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) it is estimated that there are approximately 6,500 pupils in Glasgow who will benefit from this extended entitlement to free school lunches. It should be stressed that this an estimate and is thus subject to some uncertainty.

Everyone in Scotland who pays council tax benefits from the freeze on council tax.

Detailed information is not held centrally on the numbers and incomes of people in households who pay council tax by area. However, based on information from the Scottish House Condition Survey 2007, it is possible to estimate that there were between 311,000 and 329,000 people in Glasgow living in a household with an annual income of under £23,000, where at least one person in the household is eligible for council tax, is not exempt and does not receive full council tax benefit.

This is between 86.1 percent and 91.5 percent of people in Glasgow living in a household with an annual income of under £23,000.

I can confirm that representatives of the credit union movement will be invited to sit on the short-life working group on financial education being established by Learning and Teaching Scotland.

Children are already entitled to free prescriptions and so are not affected by our policy to abolish prescription charges.

Everyone in Scotland who pays council tax benefits from the freeze on council tax.

Detailed information is not held centrally on the numbers and incomes of people in households who pay council tax by area. However, based on information from the Scottish House Condition Survey 2007, it is possible to estimate that there were between 224,000 and 240,000 people in Glasgow living in a household with an annual income of under £16,000 where at least one person in the household is eligible for council tax, is not exempt and does not receive full council tax benefit.

This is between 85.0% and 91.5% of people in Glasgow living in a household with an annual income of under £16,000.

Using the Scottish Household Survey, we estimate that during 2007-08 in Glasgow, 380,000 people (65% of the population) lived in households with net incomes below £23,000.

The Scottish Household Survey defines household income as the combined income of the highest income householder and his/her partner.

This definition is not directly comparable with the main UK and Scottish Government income estimates which come from the Family Resources Survey. Family Resources Survey estimates are not available at local authority level.

Using Scottish Household Survey figures, we estimate that 100,000 (38%) of the people in Glasgow living in households with net incomes below £16,000 will be affected by the reduction and abolition of prescription charges when they collect their prescriptions.

This estimate is based on the number of people in this income band who are currently not eligible for free prescriptions because they are:

Between 16 and 60-years-old and,

not in full-time education and,

living in a household where the highest income householder (or his/her partner) does not receive Income Support, Income-based Job Seekers'' Allowance or Pension Credit.

This estimate does not take into account groups that are eligible for free prescriptions and that could not be identified in the Scottish Household Survey. These groups include:

People with low incomes receiving certain combinations of child and working tax credits

Pregnant women, or recent mothers, with exemption certificates

People with certain medical conditions

NHS in-patients

Some war pensioners.