We provide additional support in Scotland that is not available elsewhere in the UK through child winter heating assistance, for example, which we introduced. Initiatives have been undertaken to provide extra support. We talked about carers allowance supplement in connection with the set of regulations that we just considered. Of course, there are further considerations through future primary legislation when we will be able to consider what we wish to do as a Parliament as we continue to develop Scotland’s social security system. However, when it comes to adult disability payment, the focus has been on the safe and secure delivery of our new payment, adult disability payment, which was introduced nationally from 29 August, and undertaking case transfer safely and securely.

We also need to consider the fact that case transfer needs to be undertaken when it comes to carers allowance and the new benefit that were are introducing, carer support payment. We are, of course, undertaking the process of delivering carer support payment, which will be the next benefit that the Scottish Government delivers. Our determination to support carers is demonstrated by carers allowance supplement, which we have paid since 2018, and by the additional support that we paid in 2020 and 2021.

We want to support carers as much as we can within the financial constraints that we are under. That is why the consultation on carers allowance and carer support payment is an important piece of work. It is why the new benefit includes a number of improvements that we hope to make from launch, from the completion of case transfer and then in due course. I look forward to discussing that with Parliament once the consultation responses have been published. It is a very important new benefit. We want to make a difference with it, and part of that is, of course, about the level of payment and the amount that we can provide in support within the financial realities and constraints that the Government faces. It is important to bear in mind that, just as with adult disability payment, there is a very challenging process of case transfer that needs to be completed. Once we have done that—hopefully as quickly as possible; it is certainly the intention to undertake case transfer as timeously as we can—and once everyone is in one system, we will be able to think collectively about what improvements can be made within the financial constraints that we are under.

The letter went from the chief executive of Social Security Scotland, rather than from my office. We can check what response Social Security Scotland has had. Of course, although we can urge councils to do things, we cannot in this regard instruct them. I would consider in good faith, however, that the councils are undertaking and have undertaken necessary and helpful proactive engagement with those in their communities, as they consistently do.

In my opening remarks, I briefly talked about where we are obliged to uprate and where there is discretion. It is important to bear that in mind. Under section 86B of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, which, of course, we passed in the Parliament just a few years ago, we are obligated to uprate child disability payment, adult disability payment, funeral support payment and the Scottish child payment, and we will also consider the forthcoming care support payment within the 2018 act. There are obligations under section 81 of the act for the carers allowance supplement. The Scottish child payment is a good example, because we have increased that above inflation—above the statutory requirement. That demonstrates that deviation is possible.

There are exclusively Scottish benefits whereby there is discretion to uprate. In the previous financial year, we chose to uprate by 6 per cent instead of 3.1 per cent for a number of such benefits, and this year we have uprated by 10.1 per cent even though there was no obligation to do so. The flexibility that you query has already been undertaken in certain circumstances.

Thanks, Mr McLennan. It is important to note that the September CPI is a measure of price increases over the preceding 12 months to September and not a measure of inflation during September alone. Devolved Scottish benefits will, therefore, be uprated in April 2023, with the September 2022 12-months CPI rate representing the overall change in prices faced by consumers over the year to September 2022. As I said in my answer to Pam Duncan-Glancy, CPI is a leading measure of inflation published each month by the Office for National Statistics and is a national statistic.

Officials assess alternative uprating options each year, including the use of a CPI rate closer to the time that uprating will take effect. However, the September CPI rate was considered the most appropriate inflation period to use to uprate benefits in April 2023. The September CPI rate is published in October due to the time lag between the period covered by the data and its publication. Using a later 12-month rate or, for example, an average rate over 2022-23 would introduce administrative challenges around setting the Scottish Government’s budget, which is published in December, and then implementing rate changes to benefits thereafter.

It is also preferable to use outturn statistics to forecast, as they reflect the inflation that households have experienced to date rather than predictions of inflation, which are inherently uncertain. We have realised that particularly in recent times.

Do you have a next question?

I thank colleagues for their important questions and hope that they will support the regulations.

Motion agreed to,

That the Social Justice and Social Security Committee recommends that the Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 be approved.

The scan is essential to being able to deliver the benefit, because, as members will see in the regulations, the eligibility criteria are based entirely on reserved benefits, so we absolutely have to have that scan in order to deliver the benefit. Significant preparation has been undertaken to date and will be undertaken over the weeks ahead until we receive that scan. This is probably a good time for Angela Keane to illuminate the practical issues from an agency perspective.

The challenge is that the relevant weather station for Renfrewshire and most of Glasgow is Bishopton. I emphasise that part of the weakness in the cold weather payment system is that weather stations relate to certain postcodes and are not based on local authority areas.

The Bishopton weather station is the one that serves Glasgow to the largest extent. There was one cold weather payment of £25 in 2020-21. In 2018-19, there was one payment of £25. In 2017-18, there were two payments that totalled £50. In the period from 2011-12 until last year, your constituents who are served by the weather station at Bishopton would have received only £100, whereas, under our system, if it had been in place, they would have received £50 each year. That demonstrates that many low-income households will be better off under the winter heating payment system that we are seeking to introduce—which we are asking the committee to approve today—than they were under the cold weather payment system.

Will the member take an intervention on that point?

I can appreciate the question in that the cold weather payment has, in certain areas, initiated more than two payments in a winter in parts of Scotland, although not consistently, because there is nothing consistent about the cold weather payment—that is one of its inherent weaknesses. However, I appreciate that there are areas where, in certain years, support from the cold weather payment has been received that exceeds £50. We do not know what the weather will be like, even in those places, in winters to come.

I encourage people in certain places who may, in certain weather conditions, have received more than £50 under the cold weather payment to utilise other support from the Scottish Government, such as the fuel insecurity fund. It is important to recognise that, overall, hundreds of thousands more people will benefit from winter heating assistance than have done under the cold weather payment system.