Question reference: S4W-16540
- Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 29 July 2013
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Current status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 14 August 2013
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that the replacement of Disability Living Allowance with personal independence payments will have on (a) disabled people in Scotland and (b) its poverty targets.
Answer
Using Department for Work and Pensions forecasts, the changes from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payment is estimated to reduce the number of people in receipt of Personal Independence Payment by nearly 70,000 in Scotland by October 2018. Those changes to disability benefits, along with other coalition welfare cuts, will have a significant and detrimental impact on poverty in Scotland and will undermine our efforts to tackle its causes. The solution is for the Scottish Parliament to have control over welfare matters so that we can devise policies for the benefit of the Scottish people.