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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 16 November 2024
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Displaying 1054 contributions

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Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

Nicky, do you have anything to add?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

Maybe one of the council representatives could answer this question to start with. In addition to resources through the local government settlement this financial year, the Scottish Government has provided £8 million to councils to implement the rapid rehousing transition plans, and it is providing an additional £2 million to implement partnership plans with the councils that are facing the greatest pressure. How is that funding being used and how can its impact be maximised?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

That would be great. Thank you.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Social Security Scotland

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

Yes.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Social Security Scotland

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

Okay.

I suspect that you will probably need to write to us on the next area that I want to ask about. Another change that we were going to make was to have much less requirement to have individuals come in to be assessed medically. What percentage of people who make a new application or have been transferred from personal independence payment are now being examined?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Social Security Scotland

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

From the figures, I think that there were 350,000 cases in total to be transferred from the DWP to Social Security Scotland. I declare at this point that I am on personal independence payment and am waiting to be transferred. My understanding from your figures is that 74,785 cases have been completed, which leaves 275,000 roughly to be completed by the end of next year. From my basic arithmetic, that means you will have to transfer 13,750 cases a month to reach that target. Will you do it?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Social Security Scotland

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

I will be very quick.

I want to go back to a previous issue that I was interested in but that we moved on quite quickly from—your client surveys. We, as MSPs, get only the bad news, and Twitter is perhaps not the best place to look at what is happening. How do you decide who gets to fill out an assessment of how you did? Is it a random selection? Obviously, your figures are very high with regard to people being very pleased with your services, but how do you choose people to fill out the forms?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Social Security Scotland

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

Okay. Thank you.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

Thank you. Does anyone else want to come in on this one? If not, I am happy to leave it there, convener.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Social Security Scotland

Meeting date: 1 February 2024

Jeremy Balfour

Just very quickly, convener, on a couple of things. As a committee, we have looked previously at the number of contractors that you use. I think that there are about 3,800 full-time equivalent staff. How many of them are contractors? I did not visit Dundee last week, but I have been twice. Can you tell us how many of the desks in the Dundee office are used daily? How much are people working at home compared to being in the office? It is a large office.