Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning to the minister and his team. My question is almost a supplementary to my colleague Jeremy Balfour’s question about disability and carers benefits. In the take-up strategy, you highlight that it is difficult to identify individual disabled people and carers. What engagement have you had with organisations that represent disabled people and carers in order to help you to do that? What research have you undertaken to help to identify who is eligible for disability and carers benefits since our predecessor committee recommended that that research be done?

I have a follow-up question. I appreciate your answer, minister, and I have little doubt that the engagement between the agency and individuals who come through the system will be positive and, certainly, a bit different from what has gone before it. However, it is the people who we are not seeing and who are not yet claiming the benefits who concern me. For example, in order to reach our targets to reduce child poverty, we need to increase uptake of the Scottish child payment to at least 83 per cent, but it is currently sitting at 73 per cent. What are the Government’s plans to improve on that, so that we meet our child poverty targets? Members know that, at the current rate of uptake, we will not necessarily meet those targets, so how will we find the additional approximately 25 per cent of people who are eligible? How will we find the other people who have not come through the system yet? My colleague Miles Briggs mentioned earlier that only 59 per cent of people have taken up funeral support payments. A moment ago, you described a series of engagements that you will carry out with people who have been through the system, but what will we do for people who are not yet taking the benefits up?

That would be really helpful. Specifically, could you outline when it is intended that the review will start and what it will consider?

Almost.

Take-up of the Scottish welfare fund appears to be dependent on postcode; there is significant variability in the success rates of applications across the country. In addition, we see more and more repeated applications for the Scottish welfare fund, which suggests that people are living in crisis. What is the Government doing to review the Scottish welfare fund and address the variability across locations and postcodes in Scotland, and what is it doing to ensure that people can access benefits on a more permanent basis to ensure that they have the money that they need to live on rather than consistently going back to what is in essence a crisis fund?

Thank you.

Good morning, panel, and thank you for your testimony so far. I have some questions on temporary accommodation and evictions, which have been touched on already. We know that there are a large number of children in temporary accommodation. What can we do to move them rapidly—I think that that is the word that was used—into more settled accommodation? Would it be possible to do that before Christmas? I would like to think so, but I am keen to hear how we could do it.

It was rightly pointed out that the change to the ban on evictions has had a serious impact on the numbers. Do you have any concerns about the lifting of the ban and its impact on homelessness?

I promised that I would remember to do that, convener. I ask Dr Watts and Maggie Brünjes to comment.

Thank you for setting out the position, Mark.

As the convener has said, we have received a number of emails that call for Covid-19 to be made an industrial disease under the new benefit; others have said that women make up just a fraction of the applicants and that the benefit must start to recognise women’s injury and disease in the workplace. Your bill does not propose to do that, so could you tell the committee how it will contribute to dealing with those issues?

I will continue the theme of equalities and ask about disabled people who present as homeless. In the interests of time, I will put these questions to Lorraine and Gordon in particular. Will you briefly explain the experience of disabled people who apply through the homelessness route? Are enough accessible homes being built to put people into?