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The Scottish Government provides funding to seven national carer organisations to represent carers, their caring roles and specific issues they might face. Their initiatives include an annual National Carers Week, which we also support, to raise awareness of carers issues.

We are currently consulting on a draft Carers charter, summarising carers’ rights under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016. The Act includes a requirement for local authorities to establish an information and advice service for carers on a number of issues, including the proposed charter. We are also working with education stakeholders to raise awareness of Young Carers and what matters to them.

We also fund the Carer Positive employer recognition scheme which raises awareness of carers and carer-friendly policies in the workplace. There are currently over 270,000 employees across Scotland working for organisations signed up to the scheme.

We are working with local partners and national carer organisations to prepare for implementation of the Carers (Scotland) Act in April 2018, which will help identify and address the personal outcomes important to individual carers, including tackling loneliness.

We are also planning to consult on a draft strategy to address loneliness and social isolation in the coming months. It is important for the strategy to be informed and shaped by those with lived experience and we are actively exploring with stakeholders how best to do this through the consultation and more widely.

We currently support initiatives such as the voluntary sector short breaks fund and the Young Carer Festival that provide carers opportunities to build relationships outwith their caring routine. Local carer centres are also supported to provide a range of support services to meet carer needs which will include the social needs of the carer.

The Scottish Government’s intention is to build a social security system that is transparent and accountable; committed to continuous improvement. Collecting and publishing data are key to these aims.

The process for collection and publication of statistics on all the devolved benefits, including on associated appeals, is being developed.

Scottish Government will produce a range of statistics on devolved benefits once they are being delivered by Scotland's new social security agency and, where possible, this will include take-up rates.

We are not proposing to retain the UK Government’s approach to Mandatory Reconsideration. Our approach to decision making will focus on getting it right first time. However, where an individual wishes to challenge a decision, they will be able to request a re-determination. The re-determination process will:

• have clearly published procedures and timescales in place to put things right quickly where there has been an error;

• provide meaningful redress to individuals if the re-determination is not completed within set timescales – they will have a right to take their case to a tribunal;

• put aside the initial decision and will be a complete re-run of the decision process, carried out by an official in another part of the social security agency;

• allow the individual to ask for a re-determination without having to supply further evidence, but the agency will take into consideration any new evidence provided during the re-determination process; and

• allow for short term assistance to be paid to individuals, to maintain their benefit at a higher rate, until the re-determination and appeal process is complete.

The proposals set out in the Social Security Bill are the result of careful consideration of the views from the large scale and widespread consultation carried out in summer 2016.

We will be working with our Experience Panels and others to co-design the new processes for challenging decisions as part of the development of the new social security system.

Local authorities have the statutory powers to provide meals to children outwith term time and some choose to use these powers to provide lunch/activity clubs. Local authorities are best placed to examine what holiday provision may be required in their local communities to meet local need. The Scottish Government encourages local authorities to allocate their total financial resources on this basis.

We are aware that several local authorities in Scotland offer holiday lunch club provision and we continue to welcome any activity that may contribute to supporting the most vulnerable in our society.

As set out in paragraph 251 of the policy memorandum that accompanies the Social Security (Scotland) Bill, the Scottish Government’s policy on recovery of overpayments will be different to current UK Government practice, will be based on the principles of fairness, dignity and respect and will take into account the financial circumstances of the individual.

With these principles in mind, we are currently designing and developing our systems and processes for how the recovery of overpayments will work in practice.

The Scottish Government’s intention is to have a social security system that is transparent and accountable; a system that is always trying to improve. Collecting and publishing data are key to these aims.

The process for collection and publication of statistics on all the devolved benefits, including on associated appeals, is being developed.

We have made a commitment to work closely with people with direct experience of benefits through our users, Experience Panels and stakeholders to co-design the detailed operational processes as part of service design.

We recognise that individuals may wish to seek the help and advice of others throughout the lifetime of any claim for assistance, and are making provision for this.

In line with the findings of the Consultation on Social Security in Scotland, the Scottish Government has committed to co-designing the charter, starting with a ‘blank sheet of paper’ and working in close partnership with stakeholders and those with direct, lived experience of accessing social security.

While it would be wrong to pre-empt the outcome of this co-design process, we expect that one of the key matters to be addressed will be how best to ensure that meaningful options are available to individuals where it is felt that that some element of the Scottish system is failing to live up to the commitments set out in the charter.

The Scottish Government has made a clear commitment to maximise family income, a key component in tackling poverty and is opposed to the benefit cap. Statistics published by DWP on 3 August 2017 show that in May 2017, 3,705 households and around 11,400 children in Scotland were affected by the benefit cap; pushing more and more families into poverty.

That is one of the reasons why the Scottish Government is delivering a programme of activity to increase uptake of social security over the course of this parliamentary term, by encouraging people to exercise their rights and claim the benefits they are entitled to.

Carer’s Allowance is one of the benefits exempt from the benefit cap and in June and August 2017 there were two separate phases of activity targeting young carers specifically. Developed in partnership with Young Scot and timed to coincide with Carers’ Week and the Young Carers’ Festival, the programme was designed to increase awareness among young carers of the benefits available to them and to encourage take up.

This will be followed in October by activity to encourage those 65 and over to find out if they are eligible for benefits they are not currently receiving, and will particularly highlight Attendance Allowance, which is also exempt from the benefit cap.