Tag: social policy

Scottish government commits £100 million to welfare support

‘It is unacceptable that anyone should be living in poverty in a country as wealthy as Scotland’ – Margaret Burgess, Housing & Welfare Minister

beggarMeasures to tackle the impact of Westminster welfare reforms will receive £104 million of Scottish Government support next year, it was announced today.

£8 million will be allocated to funding advice services which support those affected by welfare changes and for the delivery of the Emergency Food Aid Action Plan which helps organisations combat food poverty in Scotland.

Around £35 million will be divided between local authorities to support people affected by the bedroom tax.

£38 million will be allocated to the Scottish Welfare Fund and its delivery. The Scottish Welfare Fund provides a safety net to people in an emergency or a disaster and helps people on low incomes access household goods.

In addition, the Scottish Government is committing a further £23 million funding for the Council Tax Reduction scheme which supports vulnerable people in meeting their Council Tax liabilities.

The £104 million forms part of the Scottish Government’s draft budget for 2015-16.

To date the Scottish Government’s welfare support has:

  • Helped over 100,000 households, including 32,000 families through the Scottish Welfare Fund, between April 2013 and June 2014.

  • Protected over 537,000 vulnerable people from increased Council Tax liabilities, following the UK Government’s abolition of Council Tax Benefit.

  • Helped 71,000 households affected by the bedroom tax, at an average cost of £50 a month.

  • Helped to deliver 72 projects which are supporting 20,000 people through the Making Advice Work programme funded by both Scottish Government and the Money Advice Service.

Announcing the welfare budget allocations ahead of the Welfare Benefits for People Living with Disabilities Debate, Housing and Welfare Minister Margaret Burgess said:

“It is unacceptable that anyone should be living in poverty in a country as wealthy as Scotland.

“We recognise there is still a problem which is why we are taking action and setting aside £104 million in next year’s budget to tackle poverty and inequalities and to help those affected by welfare changes.

“By allocating £38 million to the Scottish Welfare Fund and its delivery, we are making sure that we continue to reach out to those in the most deprived areas of Scotland. This Fund will help families access support and help to buy everyday items that many of us take for granted.

“We are still paying a heavy price for Westminster’s welfare reforms, this investment will help to mitigate the effects of these cuts on some of our most vulnerable households.

“As we have already set out in our submission to the Smith Commission, full responsibility over welfare and social policy is the only way for us to tackle poverty and to create a more prosperous and fairer society.”

Jobs alone will not eliminate poverty, report warns

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New jobs alone will not tackle the chronic problem of poverty in Scotland, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has warned. The report was published yesterday – 100 days from the Referendum – and authors say Scotland’s public services must improve to support families and make work pay, whatever the outcome of September’s vote.

Latest research shows by the mid-2020s, one in seven working-age adults and children could still be below the poverty line – two thirds of them in working families.

The findings are detailed in the third and final referendum briefing written by the New Policy Institute (NPI) and published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) today. The research looks at the challenge that Scotland would face to tackle poverty, even with a much higher employment rate.

Scotland’s employment rate has remained at or above the UK’s employment rate for the last eight years. It currently stands at 73.5% and on rates of growth achieved in the ten years to 2007, it could reach 80% by 2025. At current population levels, this would mean an extra 300,000 jobs in the economy.

The report authors analysed the impact of this growth, looking at what would happen to poverty levels under two scenarios, depending on whether the extra jobs were full or part-time. They found:

  • If the 80% benchmark was reached by the creation of only part-time jobs, poverty among working age adults and children could fall from 800,000 (19.4%) to 670,000 (16.2%).
  • But if most of those extra jobs were full-time, the number in poverty would fall further, to 600,000 (14.6%). 65% of them would be in working families.

The lower poverty rate of the second scenario (of full-time jobs) shows the importance of a higher ‘work intensity’ – where families are able to access jobs with more hours. But this brings problems of its own: policy makers will need to ensure there are sufficient high quality, flexible and affordable public services such as transport, childcare, adult social care and health services, to make it possible for a family to work longer hours.

Dr Peter Kenway, Director of NPI and report co-author, said: “As employment levels rise, post-referendum Scotland must avoid replacing a problem of material deprivation with one of inflexible services and a lack of time: families short of cash are often short on time as well. Both sides of the independence campaign have to address the long-term challenges faced by struggling families of finding secure work that pays sufficiently.”

Jim McCormick, Scotland adviser to JRF, said: “These scenarios highlight the challenges that Scotland must meet if poverty rates are to decrease. Much higher employment would cut poverty, but jobs alone will not eliminate it while low pay and inadequate working hours remain so widespread.

“We need to ensure work pays enough to be a route of out poverty. Working more hours is only part of the answer: housing costs, rates of pay and the tax, tax credit and benefit systems are all implicated. Scotland after the referendum will need policy responses to all of these, whether independent or not.”

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