Chamber and committees

Good morning, convener and colleagues. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss with you the draft Winter Heating Assistance (Low Income) (Scotland) Regulations.

The regulations will introduce our 13th Scottish benefit, which is called the winter heating payment. It will support around 400,000 people, replacing the United Kingdom Government’s cold weather payment. In contrast to cold weather payments, which are dependent on certain weather conditions, the winter heating payment will be an annual, reliable £50 benefit delivered by Social Security Scotland, beginning in February.

Our approach will differ from that of the Department for Work and Pensions. To receive a single payment of the DWP’s cold weather payment, someone must live in an area where the average of the mean daily temperature for seven consecutive days is 0°C or below—identified through weather stations, which often do not represent local conditions. By comparison, for the winter heating payment, we have removed the requirement for any period of a specific temperature being reached; instead, we will provide stability to people on low incomes, who are less likely to be able to afford additional heating costs during the winter.

The cost of living crisis has had a significant impact on everyone, but those who are likely to feel the increase in energy prices the most are those with the lowest incomes and the highest need for additional warmth. That includes older people, disabled people and households with young children. Our new winter heating payment targets those groups, ensuring that they receive a reliable contribution towards their winter heating expenses and do not have to hope for periods of cold weather to be sustained for seven days just to trigger a payment, as is the case with cold weather payments.

Between 2015-16 and 2021-22, an average of only £8.3 million was spent on cold weather payments in Scotland, supporting on average around 185,000 people each year. By comparison, we anticipate that our reliable £50 winter heating payment will provide at least £20 million to 400,000 people every year, as I have said.

We are facing challenging times, and we are working within a largely fixed budget in Scotland. An investment of £20 million each year is significantly more than the corresponding level of funding that we are forecast to receive from the UK Government under the block grant adjustment. Again, that reflects our principle that social security is an investment in people and can contribute to tackling poverty. For context, in four of the past 11 years, low-income households received less than £1 million from cold weather payments to help with their heating bills.

As well as the £20 million that we have allocated for the winter heating payment, the Scottish Government is spending hundreds of millions of pounds on devolved social security, including our Scottish child payment, child winter heating assistance, carers allowance and other benefits that are available only for people in Scotland.

My officials and I are grateful to the DWP for its collaboration in delivering the winter heating payment as part of the joint delivery of our devolved social security programme. Our ability to meet our target of beginning payments in February is based on the DWP providing the Scottish Government with the right data at the right time. To ensure that payments can begin in February, it is critical that the DWP maintains its commitment to providing data to Social Security Scotland by 31 January, to allow us to conclude our internal assurance of the 400,000 records. That is really important. We continue to work closely with the DWP to ensure a safe and secure transition.

Lastly, members will be aware that the draft regulations were referred to the Scottish Commission on Social Security in June. We received its report in August. The Scottish Government’s response to its recommendations was laid in the Parliament on 16 November, along with a final draft of the regulations. As always, I am extremely grateful to the Scottish Commission on Social Security for its scrutiny and recommendations.

I welcome the opportunity to be with you today and to take any questions as part of your consideration of these important regulations.

I thank the member for raising those important points. Of course, they are considerations that I and my ministerial colleagues are engaged in. We are seeking, with the mechanisms and limited resources that we have in a largely fixed budget, to provide additional support to people. I appreciate that you recognised that in your question.

We will always seek to consider what more we can do but with mindfulness around how we do it. There are demands on other aspects of the public sector. There is strong demand across the board around what people need during this cost of living crisis. We have provided significant extra support over and above what we have from the UK Government with the block grant adjustment for social security, which is approximately £460 million in this financial year.

The evidence of creating the child winter heating assistance benefit, of seeking to provide the winter heating assistance to more households and of introducing the Scottish child payment and increasing it by 150 per cent shows that the Scottish Government is doing what it can to provide additional support, but we appreciate and absolutely recognise that people face significant challenges at the moment. We are working to identify, where we can, resource to support people in extra ways.

When it comes to addressing fuel poverty, there are wider aspects around people’s dwellings and energy efficiency. I know that there was, quite understandably, a lot of discussion on those matters during the evidence that you took last week. I encourage engagement with my ministerial colleague Mr Harvie. I am sure that he would be interested in coming back and speaking to the committee about what the Government is undertaking to help people with their heating costs and dwellings and to reduce their energy consumption in order to help with those cost pressures as well.

With regard to that last question, how do you envisage that taking place, just so I am clear on what you are asking?

[Inaudible.]—considered. First of all, approximately 6,000 children will have “aged out”—that is the phrase that is used—in the 12 weeks prior to the launch date on 14 November. Approximately 3,000 children from that cohort will have their Scottish child payment claim ended at that point. The other 3,000 children are from households that have a younger child and will, therefore, still be in receipt of the Scottish child payment. Social Security Scotland will send specific SMS text messages and/or emails to that cohort of families to tell them that they need to reapply if their child has aged out. The rationale for that approach is that our user research testing showed that we need to keep our messaging simple and clear. The risk with unclear messaging is that some people who are eligible to receive the Scottish child payment might not apply for it. None of us wants that; we want people who are eligible to apply.

Our testing showed that, if we restart payments automatically for some clients, many others might assume that that applies to them, too, so they would fail to apply and therefore miss out. We decided that a straightforward approach would be for it to apply to everyone. As I mentioned, we will send a specific SMS text message and/or email to tell people that they need to reapply if their child has aged out. We will do that for the particular cohort that I have referenced. I hope that that reassures Mr Balfour.

As the member emphasised, our consultation is still live and closes today, and we encourage people to contribute to it. Once the consultation closes, officials will require some time to consider the feedback and the policy options. There are challenges relating to how we deliver in the future. We need to consider what powers the Scottish Government has and the technical capabilities for delivery. However, we are keen to make improvements when we can. We will aim to publish in early 2023 a response to the consultation, which will set out some of our next steps. As part of policy development, officials will consider whether there would be a benefit in modifying the legislative footing on which the Scottish child payment is based. That is certainly something that we will consider.

Does the member mean in a safeguarding capacity?

That is a very important question on which I will bring in Janet Richardson shortly. Before I do so, I emphasise to Mr Balfour and the committee more widely that Social Security Scotland is well prepared for the extension of the Scottish child payment, because it now has the necessary staff, processes, training and support either in place or scheduled imminently.

As Mr Balfour rightly emphasised, we expect a large influx of applications once the benefit is extended on 14 November, should Parliament pass the regulations. To help to manage that, at the same time, we are introducing improvements to reduce manual processing of Scottish child payment applications. We call that straight-through processing, and it should impact positively on processing times. Straight-through processing is through increased automation of processing of Scottish child payment applications. Once the payment is extended from 14 November to individuals who are responsible for children under 16, a high percentage of applications should be processed automatically without any manual intervention being required. The system will carry out all the checks that a client adviser would perform, so clients will not be treated differently if their application is processed by the system. Only eligible cases, with no outstanding actions or checks to be completed, will be processed to payment by that system.

If a client is not eligible or fails any of the automated checks for any reason, their case will be picked up by a client adviser to be processed manually. Any client who is awarded the Scottish child payment, after a decision is processed by that system, will have the same redetermination and appeal rights as a client whose decision was made by a client adviser. We are being very clear that no application will be denied by the straight-through system, because we have those proper checks and balances.

A combination of organisational preparation through staffing, training, straight-through processing and making sure that the agency is properly stood up for the anticipated increase in demand from 14 November, will make it a good client journey for the people of Scotland.

Janet, do you want to add anything to what I have said?

I thank Mr Choudhury for that question. I talked about that in my answer to Natalie Don. There are on-going considerations of the impact of the Scottish child payment on clients’ engagement with work, but there is no evidence of significant effects to date.

I urge colleagues, on the basis of our discussion today and what I said in my opening statement and more generally, to support the regulations. In particular, the uplift and extension of the Scottish child payment will make a significant difference for a lot of our constituents during this challenging time. There are various times during a parliamentary session when MSPs can make a difference for people, and I suggest that this is one of those moments. I strongly urge colleagues to support the regulations, given the positive impact that the increase in, and extension of, the Scottish child payment will have for many households at this challenging time.

I move,

That the Social Justice and Social Security Committee recommends that the Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendment and Transitional Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 be approved.

It is a good thing for all of Scotland that education maintenance allowance is in place in Scotland, whereas that is not in the case in other parts of the UK. Although the Scottish Government cannot guarantee that all 16-year-olds who age out of the Scottish child payment will be eligible for EMA, we have considered the likelihood that people who turn 16 might transition to EMA, so we are working to ensure that relevant signposting is in place for them. We are developing an insight-driven communication and engagement plan, which will be a live document that is continuously reviewed and updated. We are developing that ahead of the roll-out, and it will be reviewed and updated.

In our communication strategy, we have included an objective to raise awareness of EMA as a form of support for those who age out of the Scottish child payment at the age of 16, and we are currently working on the best approach to achieve that objective. EMA is currently promoted in schools as well as online, including via local authority websites. We are working to ensure that promotion in schools of the Scottish child payment is conscious of the links to EMA and complements engagement that has already been carried out.

The point is well made by the member and the committee. I hope that my answer reassures members that consideration and action are under way in that space. With our partners that I have mentioned, the Government will certainly be focused on making sure that we help people to access the support of EMA once they age out of the Scottish child payment.