On 29 August I attended a workshop with users of MECOPP, which is based in my constituency. With its ethos of working in partnership with carers and the voluntary and statutory sectors, MECOPP actively seeks to dismantle barriers that deny black and minority ethnic carers access to health, social work and other social care services in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
As the committee paper details, we discussed several aspects of the Social Security (Scotland) Bill. I should note that all the discussions took place in Cantonese and were translated.
We discussed the principles of the bill, for which there was general support among attendees. However, it was agreed that in the current system it can be extremely difficult for people who do not speak English to access information on benefits or to speak to officials over the phone. There are also challenges around making use of information technology facilities, and people are often reliant on support workers to help them because of language barriers. Therefore, it was suggested that there should be an additional principle regarding equity of access—equal access to information and advice to apply for benefits.
It was also suggested that there should be specific help and support made available for non-English-speaking communities. That was about equal access to information, in respect of sections 1(e) to 1(f) of the bill.
We went on to discuss the charter. There was strong agreement that the charter is a good idea. There was support for the reports that are detailed in the charter and agreement that the annual reports should be honest, sufficiently detailed and publicly available.
As principles can be difficult to pin down, it was suggested that it would be helpful to have a concrete set of standards underpinning each one. There was also discussion about the importance of engagement in the creation of the charter, and of on-going scrutiny of it. A suggestion was made that an expert panel, perhaps like the Scottish Government’s experience panels, could be set up to assess whether the principles of the charter are working in practice. Panels could be set up for different communities because otherwise it might be difficult for people to access them if English is not their first language.
The next item for discussion was the rules. There was general support for the rules, but the point was raised again that effort will need to be made to ensure that people from non-English-speaking communities are aware of them. The attendees suggested that support organisations, such as MECOPP, could be used to do that.
There was a discussion on benefits that are being devolved and included in the bill. In particular, there was a discussion on funeral payments, on which it was suggested that a quicker and more efficient decision-making process is needed in the new system to make things easier for people during a difficult time.
On cold weather payments, there was a suggestion that the temperature at which the cold weather payment is triggered should be reconsidered, because elderly people are more susceptible to the cold and therefore have higher heating costs. It was also suggested that it could be offered to people with chronic illnesses or mobility issues.
Most workshop attendees agreed that short-term assistance is a good idea and that it should not have to be paid back once a decision regarding a claimant’s benefits has been made. In general, it was considered that the overall decision-making process should be quick and efficient so that there is less need for such assistance.
Last, because the participants were carers, there was very strong support and agreement among them about the proposed increase in carers allowance. It was suggested that financial help should be available for the period immediately after someone’s caring responsibility ends in order to provide a cushion.
Although this does not necessarily relate to the bill, I mention it in order to give an accurate summary of the discussion. Issues were also raised about carers allowance and the state pension, which is a reserved matter. People talked about the differences between carers allowance and the state pension and the relationship between them once the claimant reaches state pension age. I do not think that that matter has been raised elsewhere.
I hope that that provides some insight into the important and interesting discussion that took place.