Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has committed to consider measures to tackle poverty across all ethnicities, reflecting our approach to social justice and our response to the report from the Independent Adviser on Poverty and Inequality. In the Race Equality Framework, we committed to filling evidence gaps on how and to what extent people from minority ethnic groups are accessing the benefits they are entitled to and to ensuring that all relevant policy and programme areas – such as benefits take-up policy and access to advice services (including financial advice) - are fully impact-assessed for equality, as is our legal duty.Our starting point is that services must be accessible and work for all. However, in some instances, there may be a need for targeted action that focuses specifically on minority ethnic communities. For example, we are aware that people from minority ethnic groups may be under-represented as applicants of the Scottish Welfare Fund: we are therefore looking to work with relevant organisations and to target publicity for these communities, so as to improve their access to the fund across Scotland. We will continue to look for opportunities to support people from minority ethnic groups, particularly those on low incomes, in all our work going forward.