Chamber and committees

Since Ellinore is not yet with us, I direct that question to Tony Cain from ALACHO, if he does not mind kicking off.

Thank you. Since no one else has indicated that they want to come in on that, I move to my second question, which I will direct to Stacey Dingwall from the SFHA. How have tenants been affected by the pandemic? Are you concerned about increases in arrears and potential increases in eviction action and homelessness? If so, does the Scottish Government need to consider any further protections?

Thank you. I understand that Tony Cain wants to come in.

Hi. I can hear you now.

Thank you very much for that, Tony. You mentioned the registered social landlords sector and housing associations, so perhaps we could hear from Stacey Dingwall about SFHA’s perspective on the partnership role that it plays in the ending homelessness together action plan.

Good morning, Deputy First Minister.

I want to explore how Boundaries Scotland calculates total and ward councillor allocations. What are the benefits of having similar voter to councillor ratios across all wards in a council area? Would variations in the voter to councillor ratio have an impact on effective and convenient local government?

Thank you for bringing that up, Callum—I was going to ask you about that later on, so it is good that you have put the issue on the table. I might come back to you to explore that a little bit further before I come to the end of my questions.

Oh my God! Have we lost everybody?

I will try again. I was hoping that Tony Cain could comment on the progress that has been made with the “Ending Homelessness Together” action plan and the implementation of councils’ rapid rehousing action plans.

Having previously relied on working tax credits to help to feed and clothe my child—despite being in work—the thought of suddenly losing £20 per week and any potential passported assistance fills me with fear. That fear will be striking at the heart of thousands of my constituents across Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, and many folk will be lying awake at night trying to figure out where they are going to make cuts to the family budget.

Make no mistake, Presiding Officer—I am talking not about putting a bottle of wine back on the shelf but about being in work and deciding whether a child can get new shoes or trousers, as they have kicked the toes out of their trainers and their jeans are at half mast; deciding whether the heating can be turned on as winter starts to bite; and deciding whether fresh food can be bought or whether it will be, “Let’s see what I can make this week from the tinned food from the food bank.”

I can remember having to save in order to afford £1 for the toddlers group, and it breaks my heart to think of other parents having to make that awful decision—not being able to afford the luxury of a toddlers group that will provide social opportunities for both them and their wee yin. The mental wellbeing impact will be felt severely.

Before I go any further, I put on record that years of savage cuts to social security by successive UK Tory chancellors—some of whom are now changing their minds on the matter—show us that universal credit was never enough, even before the pandemic struck. Removing a much-needed and welcome lifeline as we head into a winter beset with increased fuel and food costs, looming increases to national insurance and the end of the furlough scheme will be absolutely “catastrophic”. Those are the words of the UK Government’s own internal advisers.

If we add to that the bedroom tax, the child cap and the abhorrent rape clause, it almost feels as though to be poor is to be punished. Please remember that 45 per cent of universal credit claimants do not even receive their full entitlement, because they have to pay back a never-ending cycle of debt at source.

As a former Scottish Women’s Aid worker, I want to focus on some key figures. Women are overrepresented in low-paid precarious work with zero-hours contracts. Research by the think tank Autonomy found that some 98 per cent of workers in the UK who take home poverty wages in jobs with high coronavirus exposure are women.

According to Save the Children, more than two thirds of the families that it helped with emergency grants in the past 16 months were one-parent families, 96 per cent of which were led by single mums. Two thirds of those families were in receipt of universal credit.

As we have heard, according to estimates, withdrawing the uplift will move about 60,000 people into poverty, including 20,000 children. It will reduce spending on universal credit and tax credits in Scotland by £460 million by 2023. That is £460 million that will not circulate in our local economies, because—make no mistake—that money goes out as fast as it comes in.

Many of the mums who will face this cut next week will also be worrying themselves sick with the fear of having their children taken from them. That is a real worry that many charities hear from women who fear that their inability to feed and clothe their children will result in social work intervention.

I will finish on the fact that approximately 40 per cent of universal credit recipients are in work. I am sure that I was not the only one who could not believe my ears when, last week, South Scotland Conservative MSP Sharon Dowey implied that the cut to universal credit will be the best way to get people back into work. She repeated that today. Her colleague Alexander Stewart, however, assured us that the Conservatives are doing all that they can to lobby their Westminster counterparts to keep the lifeline. Which is it? Scotland is watching.