Chamber and committees

Do you have any suggestions on what needs to happen?

I welcome the chance to contribute in order to assert what is necessary to support households with cost of living pressures and rising energy bills. I thank Children’s Hospices Across Scotland and other organisations for their informative briefings.

The Scottish Government is taking clear and substantial action to support households by investing £6.9 billion in social security. In 2025-26, it will support around 2 million people with the cost of living crisis and it will, by providing more than £300 million in heat in building programmes, support more than 20,000 households to save up to £500 a year on their energy bills.

The debate also gives me a chance to highlight how local individuals and groups in my constituency have been working tirelessly to support those in need. Those groups offer targeted local support that works in tandem with the Scottish Government’s financial support. There are many, so I will name only a few. They include the centre81 initiative; Kilbowie St Andrews church; Improving Lives; Old Kilpatrick Food Parcels; and Dalmuir Barclay church. All provide warm hubs with food and drinks and a safe space in which to have a chat and socialise.

Many of those groups, and others such as West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare, East Dunbartonshire Foodbank, which is based in Milngavie, and Faifley food share also provide food pantries, supplying thousands of food parcels for those in need. Going even further, the likes of the Recycle Room and Isaro Community Initiative, among many others, recycle clothes and household items and offer energy-saving advice to those who need it.

Having held annual cost of living events in Clydebank, which continue to be well attended, I know how valuable those local groups are to my constituents, and I am so grateful to them all. I welcome the cabinet secretary’s announcement today of the investment of £2 million that will fund wraparound support to households.

Prior to the general election in July last year, Labour said that it would lower energy bills by £300, yet, only months later, Ofgem announced that the price cap would rise to £1,849 this year. That is the third increase in a row, and the cap is 9.4 per cent higher than it was this time last year. Have Keir Starmer and the Labour Party been uneconomical with the truth? It seems so. A recent opinion poll found that just 12 per cent of Scots think that Labour will cut energy bills. That is appalling, especially when Scotland is such an energy source. Sir Keir Starmer must apologise for breaking his promises and urgently outline the emergency steps that he will take to reverse those huge increases to household bills. Scotland is an energy-rich country, yet, under Labour, families are being forced to pay electricity prices that are among the highest in Europe.

High energy bills will impact many people, but that impact will be particularly challenging for families who have a child with a life-limiting condition. Alongside the costs of specialist equipment and adaptations, those families often face higher energy bills, and family members are often less able to work because of caring responsibilities. According to CHAS, such families are often paying double the amount of the average household to keep their child safe and comfortable. It is a heartbreaking situation that causes significant stress for families at a time when they should be able to focus on their child.

Lack of action from the UK Government on energy bills has real and devastating consequences. I urge my Labour colleagues in the chamber to listen to the calls from CHAS and other charities for the UK Government to take forward a social energy tariff to ease financial pressures on vulnerable households that face high energy costs. It is welcome that the Scottish Government’s social tariff working group aims to make recommendations to the UK Government on the design of a social tariff mechanism.

To make matters worse, at the end of last year, the Labour Government made the appalling decision to cut the winter fuel allowance. In trying to make savings, Labour decided to pick the pockets of pensioners. Despite uproar from the public, it has refused to U-turn. Even Labour members voted at their party conference to reverse that cut. There are dreadful briefings that they are now targeting those who are on disability benefits. Paul O’Kane and his predecessor, Pam Duncan-Glancy, now have a so-called voice for those who are disabled, so that is absolutely betrayal personified.

The Scottish Government will mitigate the Labour UK Government’s cruel cuts and reinstate, for example, a universal winter fuel payment, ensuring that every pensioner gets a payment next year. That will come as a great relief to my constituents and pensioners across Scotland.

That is further proof that the SNP will prioritise and protect those who are in need. While the Labour Party pushes families into poverty, the SNP will protect them. I call on the Labour MSPs in the chamber today to call on the UK Government to make urgent progress to reduce energy bills for their constituents. We need action from their Government now, not later.

It is a lifeline to many, as you know.

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—