Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: Thursday, September 2, 2021
Official Report 587KB pdf
Contents
- Attendance
- Interests
- Decisions on Taking Business in Private
- Subordinate Legislation
- Carer’s Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Subordinate Legislation
Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/221)
Under agenda item 4, the committee has been asked to consider the Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021, which increase payments and uplift the income threshold for some of the qualifying benefits under the Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 (SSI 2019/193).
The proposed updates to the regulations are welcome, and I am pleased to see them. However, I note that there was a manifesto commitment to remove the income threshold for universal credit over the course of the parliamentary session. There is also a question about the use of “no recourse to public funds” as a qualifying criterion. I think that colleagues would be interested to know the Scottish Government’s position on those matters.
Do members have any comments to make before I suggest a way forward?
As members do not have any comments to make, I propose that the committee write to the minister to ask for further clarification on those points. Are members content for me to do so?
Members indicated agreement.