Chamber and committees

Good morning. You mentioned that the carers allowance supplement is increasing by 1.7 per cent. That benefit is only paid in Scotland, and the cost is borne by our budget. In your discussions with Westminster Government, has there been any indication that it intends to replicate that payment, or does it intend to keep carers in other parts of the UK receiving a lesser amount than in Scotland?

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will mark international women’s day, and its theme of “Accelerating Action” to reach gender equality. (S6F-03867)

I am pleased to have secured today’s debate to discuss the impact of United Kingdom welfare cuts, and I thank all the members who have supported my motion. I also thank Age Scotland for the briefing that it provided.

Today’s debate comes at a very important time. Instead of a change of direction, we have a Government at Westminster that seems intent on making disabled people, children and pensioners the victims of austerity. The biggest lie of any election campaign was the statement, “Read my lips: no austerity.” The Labour Government has declared its intention to proceed with the cruel and inhumane welfare cuts that were proposed by the previous Tory Government. They are cuts that the respected disability charity Scope has described as “catastrophic”. It quotes Naomi who says,

“I feel abandoned by the Government ... It feels like they don’t see disabled people’s needs as important. I don’t think they care, and it makes me feel insignificant.”

Scope is calling for Labour to invest in an equal future for disabled people and not to increase poverty by cutting benefits.

I am privileged to have already spoken at two fantastic international women’s day events in Clydebank, with Moments of Freedom and the Isaro Community Initiative, both of which are led by formidable women who push for the social and economic integration of new Scots in our communities.

Will the First Minister join me in welcoming the contributions that local groups in Clydebank and Milngavie are making and advise us what steps the Scottish Government is taking to accelerate action on gender equality for all women, in particular those who face overlapping forms of oppression based on their identity?

I will only take it if I can get the time back, because I am really tight for time.

Of course I do. I thank Paul O’Kane for his intervention. However, I thought that you would stand up to apologise for how your party is treating our most vulnerable in Scotland and the wider UK.

Instead, Labour plans to proceed, with those on essential social security benefits being an easy target. We should not be surprised by that. Dr David Webster of the University of Glasgow has pointed out that, under the previous Labour Government, benefit sanctions rose to some of their highest levels. The stigmatisation of those on benefits has terrible consequences for individuals and for a fair society in which no one should be left behind.

In its report, “Jumping through hoops”, Independent Age quotes Susan, who described her experience of claiming UK benefits as

“Reducing me to tears and even making me feel suicidal several times. Not only were the questions difficult to understand, dwelling on all of the things that I am no longer capable of doing sent me into a very dark place.”

That is not someone who is looking for a “handout”; it is not someone “gaming the system”; and it is not someone “taking the mickey”.

For an easy political hit, Labour plans to adopt austerity on stilts instead of dignity, fairness and respect. It will hurt real people in my constituency and across Scotland. Under its plans, disabled people will be seriously impacted, and the financial insecurity of vulnerable households will increase. To put that into figures, there are reports that, by 2029, more than 450,000 disabled people and people with long-term conditions across the UK could be impacted as a result of the proposed reforms to the work capability assessment, with many losing payments that are currently worth more than £400 per month. Only yesterday, the BBC reported that

“The Chancellor has earmarked several billion pounds in draft spending cuts to welfare”.

In a 2024 report from the Poverty Alliance in Scotland for its collaborative project with the Scottish Government to assess the impacts of poverty related stigma on benefit take-up—

I will not.

The report found that—

I have already said that I will not take an intervention.

According to the report:

“Most Panellists agreed that stigma had gotten worse with austerity, UK government’s ‘welfare reform’, and the cost-of-living crisis”,

and

“Several spoke of putting off claiming for as long as they possibly could, to the point of hunger and destitution.”

That is really concerning, and we have heard it so many times in the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. It is up to us to combat the stigma and to change the narrative around benefits. Benefits are a safety net, and they are normal. But Labour is promoting a narrative of the scrounger and the undeserving—I will say this again: please, let us be mindful of the language that we are using.

By contrast, Scotland’s social security system is based on fairness, dignity and respect. The Poverty Alliance’s report highlighted the different approach in Scotland and noted that dealing with Social Security Scotland was viewed as a far less stigmatising experience than dealing with the Department for Work and Pensions. The difference was noted as “night and day”. We will keep going further to protect our constituents who require benefits. That is clear from the budget for 2025-26, which will invest £6.9 billion in social security and is expected to support around 2 million people in 2025-26.

However, although we will continue to do everything that we can to protect those in need, we are continuously hindered by UK austerity measures. The austerity policies of 2010, which were put in place by our Tory and Liberal Democrat colleagues, have led to severe suffering for the Scottish community, particularly those on low incomes. Those policies have been described by economists and economic historians as “disastrous” and “reckless”. The United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights went even further in 2023, condemning the UK Government’s shameful record on poverty, saying that the UK’s “grossly insufficient” welfare system, after a decade of austerity, is “simply not acceptable” and may be in violation of international law.

That reckless approach has resulted in the Scottish Government having to spend a large portion of its budget to counteract those damaging policies to protect the Scottish people. In 2025, the Scottish Government is set to invest up to £210 million in measures to mitigate UK Government austerity policies, such as the so-called bedroom tax, the benefit cap and the cut to winter fuel payments. We will go further by scrapping Labour’s abhorrent two-child benefit cap, which will lift approximately 15,000 children out of poverty.

The Scottish Government’s social security policies are significant, and they are the reason why Scotland is the only part of the UK where child poverty rates are predicted to fall. Under the Scottish National Party, the Scottish Government will continue to value and protect benefit claimants, but only with full control over welfare policies will we be able to truly address poverty and inequality. Therefore, I am calling on my Labour colleagues to push the UK Government to take the right approach and reverse its punitive welfare reform plans. If they do not do that, they can at least call out those plans and support the full devolution of social security and employment policy. Only then will we have a fair and compassionate welfare system that leaves no one behind.

Given the concerns that the ALLIANCE has raised, we should write to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to highlight its assessment that

“many vulnerable people are not reassured that the removal of protections is safe or that they are considered in decision-making”

in relation to changes to protective measures, and we should ask how people in high-risk groups are being involved in decision-making policies to amend and remove protections from airborne infections in health and social care settings.