Hywel Williams: ...respected Bevan Foundation—copies are available online in Welsh and English. One finding is that, of the people receiving both universal credit and housing benefit in Arfon, 35% are paying the bedroom tax, compared with 21% across Wales. This is cushioned to some extent by the Gwynedd local authority’s discretionary help, but will the Minister review the differential negative effects...
Lord Young of Cookham: ...mobility and make it easier to buy and sell. The group that would benefit most from this extra mobility are those waiting for their first home. There are 3.6 million homes with two or more spare bedrooms. Many older people want to trade down or to rightsize, freeing up their homes for young families. Professor Mayhew estimated that we need 50,000 homes for older people who want to...
Nia Griffith: ...fairy tale character holding out a shiny apple glistening with national insurance cuts, while all the while knowing that inside it was a deadly poison: the fact that we will all pay 10p more tax for every 5p we get back. The Chancellor is supposedly giving back, but people across the UK are suffering from the highest tax burden in 70 years, with the stealthy drip-feed of the poison of...
Drew Hendry: ...Scottish Government have been doing what they can to mitigate Westminster policies that increase poverty in the highlands and islands, although they should not have to. They have been paying the bedroom tax, for example, so our people do not have to. They have supported children through the Scottish child payment and put money in place to fund a council tax freeze, but they do not have...
Tom Arthur: Despite our calling on the chancellor to provide an essentials guarantee and to abolish damaging policies such as the two-child limit and the bedroom tax, the UK Government, in its budget, has failed to tackle poverty. We are carefully considering the implications of today’s announcement for the Scottish budget, and the Deputy First Minister will report back to Parliament in due course....
Shirley-Anne Somerville: ...available to councils in 2024-25, which includes £30.5 million to support work to prevent homelessness and £90.5 million for discretionary housing payments to mitigate cruel policies such as the bedroom tax. We are also investing £100 million in the multiyear ending homelessness together fund. Scotland has a strong record of delivering rights for anyone becoming homeless—it is the...
Tom Arthur: ...the most basic of necessities and benefit 8.8 million families. We have again called for the abolition of the two-child limit, the benefit cap, the young parent penalty in universal credit and the bedroom tax. We are doing what we can to mitigate the effect of those damaging policies, but we cannot mitigate everything. The chancellor needs to take action to support vulnerable families in...
...budget is investing £90 million for discretionary housing payments in 2024-25, which is an increase of more than £6 million on this financial year. It also includes £74 million to mitigate the bedroom tax, which is something that Sir Keir Starmer wants to retain. Independent analysis by Crisis shows that austerity-driven policies, including the two-child limit, are undoubtedly driving...
Amy Callaghan: ...costs by providing free prescriptions, free school meals, free childcare, free period products, free university education and free bus travel for those under 22 and over 60; freezing council tax; providing the young carer grant, the Scottish child payment, and both adult and child disability payments; and mitigating the bedroom tax, the rape clause, the benefits cap and real-terms cuts to...
Jackie Dunbar: ...’s austerity agenda and is instead, with the limited powers of devolution, using this budget to mitigate some of the worst of the Tory cuts. That includes the continued mitigation of the bedroom tax. The Scottish Government is investing in tackling inequality and in our future, such as through the record investment in social security. The Scottish Government is unashamedly targeting...
...important point. The damage done by the UK Government’s three-year freeze to local housing allowance has been considerable, with an estimated £819 million lost. That, coupled with the cruel bedroom tax policy, is undoubtedly causing great harm. Although the Labour Party is failing to offer any change to those devastating policies, the Scottish Government will take action. We are...
Evelyn Tweed: ...are a low priority for the Labour leadership, can the cabinet secretary provide an assurance that, unlike Westminster, Holyrood will continue to challenge austerity and cruel measures such as the bedroom tax and the two-child cap?
Shirley-Anne Somerville: ...the worst impacts of the UK Government’s welfare reforms. We are already spending around £130 million per year to directly mitigate some of the UK Government’s benefit cuts, including the bedroom tax and the benefit cap—policies that have been described by many people as being deeply damaging to the most vulnerable people in our society. Over the past six years, we have invested...
Lord Sahota: My Lords, council tax banding for our 25 million homes in England is based on their estimated market value in 1991. So, a two-bedroom flat in London, where property values have gone through the roof, falls in the same band as its equivalent in the north of England; a £1 million home is charged 0.2% of its value; and on average, one worth £250,000 is charged 0.6%. This year, 46% of...
Rachael Maskell: ...the crucial right investments, we will again see the fallout in other services. I want to understand why we have this real disparity in the funding formulas. We have heard today about the council tax regime, which was introduced in 1991, but business rates are another massive challenge. I am pleased that those on our Front Bench have said they will reform that area, because we need that...
Shirley-Anne Somerville: ...our values are different? That spend includes investment of nearly £500 million in the Scotland child payment; investment in mitigation measures because the UK Government will not scrap the bedroom tax; and investment in protecting people in a cost of living crisis when the UK Government has just walked away from its responsibilities this week. That is why it costs more money—because we...
Jane Hutt: ...charter, telling us how they were going to streamline that access to benefits. So this is a major breakthrough. They'll streamline it by starting with the funding we give to those benefits: council tax reduction scheme—thousands of people don't pay it, but a lot more could claim it; access to free school meals; access to the school essentials grant; access to the education maintenance...
Grahame Morris: I am interested in the Minister’s comments about targeting. Deprivation is made worse by bad policy decisions. The bedroom tax significantly impacted and brought an end to a multimillion-pound housing renovation scheme in the village of Horden in my constituency. Can the Minister explain to my constituents why our levelling-up bid aimed at regenerating Horden, which is ranked in the bottom...
Dr Caroline Johnson: ...sleek, colourful contraptions, once touted merely as a smoking cessation tool, have become ubiquitous. They are not just in shops, but litter our streets and are hidden away in our children’s bedrooms and classrooms. According to a recent NASUWT survey, a staggering 85% of teachers reported vaping as an issue among their students. Teachers in my constituency have spoken of pupils...
David Johnston: ...fantastic work that she has done for children in her care. The petition underpinning this debate called on the Government to review and increase the allowances paid to foster carers and to consider tax exemption levels. I should note that at this point that children’s social care is a devolved issue, meaning that the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Governments are responsible for...