- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the finding of the Analysis of Options for the Income Supplement that Council Tax Reduction reaches a relatively small share of children living in poverty.
Answer
Nearly half a million households were receiving some level of Council Tax Reduction (CTR) in June 2019, and on average recipients saved over £700 per year. 58% of CTR recipients live in one of the 30% most deprived areas in Scotland. At the end of this financial year the Scottish Government will have provided over £1.7 billion in funding for the scheme since it began.
Entitlement to CTR is determined by household circumstances and ability to pay, but also depends on the household’s Council Tax liability which in turn depends not just on the band a property is in and the council tax rate set by the local authority, but also whether any discounts or other reductions apply.
We have promoted take-up of the CTR scheme, and continue to do so, as part of the Money Talk Team service, which is delivered by the Citizens Advice Network in Scotland and supported by the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 19 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-22957 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 May 2019, what reasons were given for the absences, broken down by the percentage for each reason category.
Answer
The following table provides a breakdown of the reasons given for short term absences, broken down by number of spells and the percentage for each reason category, within the Programme Management and Delivery Division from April 2018 to March 2019.
Programme Management and Delivery Division short term absences April 2018 to March 2019, directly employed staff.
Reason for Absence | Number of Spells | % of Spells |
Respiratory system (inc. colds) | 70 | 32.4% |
Symptoms ill-defined | 43 | 19.9% |
Infections and parasites | 23 | 10.6% |
Mental disorders | 23 | 10.6% |
Nervous systems (inc. headaches) | 15 | 6.9% |
Unknown | 10 | 4.6% |
Digestive systems (inc. food poisoning) | 7 | 3.2% |
Pregnancy complications | 6 | 2.8% |
Musculoskeletal system | 6 | 2.8% |
Other | 13 | 6.0% |
All | 216 | |
For disclosure purposes it is not possible to provide a breakdown of the reasons for long term absences within the Programme Management and Delivery Division during the year 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how many people it estimates have applied for the Best Start Grant (a) baby and pregnancy, (b) early years and (c) school age payments compared with (i) those who are eligible and (ii) Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts.
Answer
Information about the number of applications received, and authorised as eligible for payment, for Best Start Grant by payment type up to the end of June 2019 is available at: https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/SocialSecurityforScotland/BSGJune2019 .
Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts are for financial years. It produced a supplementary policy costing for Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment in September 2018 in which it forecasted 4,000 payments in 2018-19, based on a 1 December 2018 launch. The Scottish Fiscal Commission “Social Security – Best Start Grant (Pregnancy and Baby Grant) – September 2018” policy costing is available at: http://www.fiscalcommission.scot/publications/supplementary-costings/social-security-best-start-grant-pregnancy-and-baby-grant-september-2018/ . In comparison, Social Security Scotland received 19,465 applications for Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment in 2018-19. Of those, 11,505 had been authorised as eligible for payment by 31 March 2019.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Scottish Child Payment will be uprated, and, if so, what measure of inflation it will use.
Answer
The Scottish Government has given a commitment to uprate the Scottish Child Payment with inflation to ensure that its value always keeps up with rising prices, and provisions will be made for this in regulations.
On 2 September, we published a Policy Paper and Analytical Report, on the uprating measures that could be used to uprate devolved social security assistance. This can be found on the Scottish Parliament’s website: https://www.parliament.scot/S5_Social_Security/General%20Documents
/20190902_CabSecSSOP_to_Convener_uprating_measures.pdf .
The Social Security Committee and the Scottish Commission on Social Security have been asked to provide their views on the Scottish Government’s proposals for uprating by end October 2019.
These views will inform the decision on the uprating measure to be applied, in time for the Scottish Budget and prior to the laying of the legislation in the Scottish Parliament in January 2020.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Scottish Child Payment will be made in respect of children in a household who have reached (a) the age of 16 and (b) the age of 16 and their 16th birthday was less than a year ago, and (i) are still in and (b) have left secondary education.
Answer
As set out in the policy position paper, by the end of 2022 the Scottish Child Payment will be paid to all eligible children under the age of 16.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government for what period an award of the Scottish Child Payment will be made.
Answer
Continued policy and delivery development is being undertaken on the Scottish Child Payment, including our intended approach to assessment periods. This will be set out in regulations, and these will be submitted to the Scottish Commission on Social Security for scrutiny in the autumn.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how many additional staff Social Security Scotland expects to recruit in (a) total and (b) each band to support the delivery of the Scottish Child Payment, and what it estimates the overall cost of these additional staff will be.
Answer
The number of staff and grades required to support the delivery of Scottish Child Payment will depend upon an assessment of the impact of delivery of Scottish Child Payment, including staff resources. We will provide an update once the assessment has been completed.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a full breakdown of its costing of the Scottish Child Payment set out in its position paper, and for what reason those costs are not detailed under a specific option in its Analysis of Options for the Income Supplement paper.
Answer
In the first full year of payments to under 6’s (2021-22) policy costs are expected to be around £70 million, rising to £180 million in the first full year of full roll-out to under 16’s (2023-24). The total establishment cost of the new payment to the end of this parliament, including implementation and administration, is estimated to be in the region of £32.5 million (across 2019-20 and 2020-21).
The information provided on pages 2 to 5 of the policy position paper demonstrates how the options examined in the Analysis of Options report informed our policy choices. As set out in the policy position paper, ‘having taken into consideration both the policy modelling and analysis, the delivery and timing implications and the impact on the existing Social Security Programme, we concluded that a refined version of Option 2, as set out in the analysis report, is one that balances the risks against the benefits.’
The detail of our chosen policy approach and the associated costs are set out in the policy position paper. The option we are taking forward most closely corresponds to Option 2(b) in the Analysis of Options.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government whether an entitlement to the Scottish Child Payment will cease when a child reaches their 16th birthday.
Answer
As set out in the Scottish Child Payment policy position paper, once fully rolled out (by the end of 2022) eligibility for the Scottish Child Payment will be on the basis of children aged under the age of 16.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how it will continuously verify entitlement to the Scottish Child Payment on an ongoing basis, and how frequently it will do so.
Answer
As set out in the Ministerial statement on the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan on 29 June, further work has been required to assess certain policy and delivery implications of the Scottish Child Payment.
As part of this work, we are considering a range of issues which includes assessment periods and verifying eligibility and entitlement. Our approach to this will be set out in regulations which we will submit to the Scottish Commission on Social Security in the autumn.