Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 3 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the total cost of mitigating any impact in Scotland of UK Government policy decisions since 2007-08, broken down by the amount spent in the (a) current financial year and (b) last five financial years.
The Scottish Government has spent around £1.2 billion in the past 14 years mitigating the impacts of UK Government welfare reforms such as the bedroom tax and benefit cap, introduced since 2010. Of that, £133 million is being invested in the current financial year (2024-25), and over £631 million has been spent in the last five financial years (2019-20 - 2023-24), funding Discretionary Housing Payments, the Scottish Welfare Fund, money advice services, and Universal Credit Scottish choices.
In addition to the above support, between February 2021 and September 2024, we have invested £905.6 million in the Scottish Child Payment, giving support to the families of over 325,000 under 16s who currently receive it. While we are doing what we can within our limited powers and fixed budget, the UK Government must do more to ensure the UK social security system at least covers essential living costs.
Table 1 provides a breakdown of spending on UK Government welfare mitigation in the last five years, plus the current financial year (six years in total).
Table 1: breakdown of spending on UK Government welfare mitigation (2019-20 - 2024-25)
Year | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | Total |
DHP, Bedroom tax budget | £52.3m | £59.7m | £71.0m | £68.1m | £69.7m | £74.84m | £395.64m |
DHP, Benefit cap budget | £6.15m1 | £7.75m | £13.9m | ||||
DHP “Other” | £10.9m | £18.9m2 | £10.9m | £16.0m3 | £7.9m | £7.9m | £72.5m |
DHP Admin funding | £1.2m | £1.2m | £1.2m | £1.7m4 | £2.2m | £2.2m | £9.7m |
Scottish Welfare Fund | £33.0m | £57.5m | £35.5m | £38.0m5 | £35.5m | £35.5m | £235m |
Scottish Welfare Fund admin funding | £5.0m | £5.5m | £5.5m | £5.5m | £5.5m | £5.5m | £32.5m |
Money advice services6 | £1.5m | £1.5m | £1.5m | £0.7m | See note 6, below | £5.2m | |
Universal credit Scottish choices | £0.2m | £0.2m | £0.1m | £0.1m | £0.13m | £0.15m | £0.88m |
Total cost of mitigating UK Government welfare reform | £104.1m | £144.5m | £125.7m | £130.1m | £127.08m | £133.84m | £765.32m |
1. Prior to 2023/24 benefit cap funding was included in the DHP ”Other” line.
2. Figure includes additional £8m of Covid-support funds.
3. Figure includes additional £2.6m for benefit cap support and £2.5m cost of living support.
4. Figure includes £0.5m additional admin funding paid for benefit cap policy roll-out preparation.
5. Figure includes £2.5m to support delivery of the Scottish Welfare Fund in 2022-23.
6. From 2018 to late 2022, The Scottish Government allocated funding from their overall welfare and debt advice budget for specific advice relating to UKG Welfare Reforms. From October 2022, this funding stream was brought together with other previously separate funding streams to support the new, streamlined Money Talk Team service delivered by Citizens Advice Scotland.