Social Security Benefits (Roll-out)

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 27 March 2019.

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Photo of Jeremy Balfour Jeremy Balfour Conservative

5. To ask the Scottish Government on what date it took the decision to delay the roll-out of the second wave of social security benefits. (S5O-03064)

Photo of Shirley-Anne Somerville Shirley-Anne Somerville Scottish National Party

We will take full responsibility for the remaining devolved benefits from 1 April 2020. The timetable for delivery was determined after careful consideration of feedback from people who have lived experience of the current system, who stated very clearly that their priority is that their benefits are delivered safely and securely. I also took on board the views of stakeholder organisations.

The timetable that has been agreed is ambitious but achievable and will protect people and their payments. It takes into account the joint nature of the project with the Department for Work and Pensions and the need to link in with reserved benefits, as well as the level of change that is required to make the benefits fit for purpose. In doing that, we will deliver on our commitment to provide a system that is based on dignity, fairness and respect.

Photo of Jeremy Balfour Jeremy Balfour Conservative

I am disappointed to note that the cabinet secretary will still not tell us what the exact date was. Does the cabinet secretary agree that the Scottish Government was never going to make the 2021 target, when consultation documents on disability assistance and terminal illness have only just been launched? Will she apologise to the disability community, who were expecting those benefits to be devolved by 2021, yet the Government has failed to meet that promise?

Photo of Shirley-Anne Somerville Shirley-Anne Somerville Scottish National Party

As I said in my original answer to Jeremy Balfour, we will take full responsibility for the remaining devolved benefits from 1 April 2020. I will take no lecture from the Scottish Conservatives on how to run a welfare system. If we look at the counterparts in the DWP, they were six years late for the roll-out of universal credit, three years late for personal independence payments and we still do not know when the full application will begin. Therefore, I will take no lectures from the Tories on how to run welfare.

It is due to the scale of the change that we need to make, particularly for disability benefits, that we need to ensure that we get it right. We need to ensure that those who have been so badly affected by their treatment by the DWP will receive entirely different treatment here, through Social Security Scotland. Months of detailed consideration have gone in, with the engagement of stakeholders, and the position papers that I launched on 28 February set out the huge amount of detailed work that has been done in planning for the next phase of delivery.

Our research with experience panels and the advice from our expert advisory group that I have had were the basis for the 28 February statement, and I am proud that we will deliver a system that is based on dignity, fairness and respect.