Seòmar agus comataidhean

Our next theme is questions on the Scottish child payment. First is the deputy convener, Emma Roddick.

Our next item of business is an evidence session on the draft uprating regulations. I welcome Marilyn Howard from the Scottish Commission on Social Security to the meeting. Good morning and thank you for accepting the committee’s invitation.

I have a few points on the usual rules for hybrid meetings, Marilyn. Please wait until I or the member asking you a question addresses you before speaking, and please allow broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn your microphone on before you begin to speak. Colleagues in the room should indicate to me or the clerks if they wish to ask a supplementary question. Members who are online should please use the chat box or WhatsApp.

I will move straight to questions. To kick off theme one, I have questions from Paul McLennan.

Thank you very much.

I have a question on our next theme. People who find themselves just above the qualifying criteria for benefits are in an extremely vulnerable position just now. SCOSS suggested that the Scottish Government might want to re-examine earnings thresholds. Do you have any opinion on how those should be calculated? For example, should increases reflect wage inflation or price inflation, or should earnings thresholds be calculated by another method?

Absolutely. Thank you. Leading on from that point, many Social Security Scotland benefits are passported from DWP low-income benefits, so eligibility is essentially outwith Scotland’s control. Does SCOSS think that a more effective way of tackling the cost of living would be to have all social security powers devolved so that we did not have to rely on passporting them from UK Government benefits?

Pam, do you want to lead us into our next theme?

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the third meeting of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee in 2023. We have one evidence session in public. We will hear from the Scottish Commission on Social Security on the draft Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2023. As members have indicated which questions and themes they wish to cover, I will move on to item 1, which is to decide whether to take item 3 in private. Does the committee agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

We move back to Pam Duncan-Glancy, who joins us online.

Our next agenda item is an evidence session on the Scottish Government’s 2023-24 budget, which was published on 15 December. I welcome to the meeting the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, Shona Robison. Joining her are Shirley Laing, director for tackling child poverty and social justice at the Scottish Government, and Kevin Stevens, head of strategic and programme finance at the Scottish Government. All the witnesses are joining us in person.

Before we move to questions, I invite the cabinet secretary to make an opening statement.

We move to questions from Jeremy Balfour.

Theme 3 is homelessness. We start off with questions from Miles Briggs.