Question reference: S6W-05690
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 26 January 2022
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Current status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 9 February 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether a letter of comfort has been provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) regarding the delivery of the roll-out of the increased Scottish Child Payment, as referred to in the minutes from the 17th meeting of the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare from November 2021.
Answer
I have received a response from Chloe Smith, the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, to my letter of 5 January 2022 on the delivery of the roll-out of the extension of Scottish Child Payment to 6-15 year olds. That response confirms the Department for Work and Pensions’ commitment to “an agreed approach to the provision of the data which supports [the Scottish Government’s] proposed delivery timeline”.
That timeline is that the extension of Scottish Child Payment to 6-15 year olds will begin from the end of 2022.
The strong preference of the Scottish Government has consistently been to extend the existing interfaces, which are currently in place to support delivery of the Scottish Child Payment for under 6s, but the DWP’s position is that we should build to align with their new strategic solution. This carries a higher degree of risk to our delivery timeline, as the DWP’s new strategic solution is still in the design phase, but we have an agreed joint plan in place to monitor and track that risk.
Our officials continue to work closely to ensure the implementation of the required technical approach and Ministers will meet in due course to review progress.