Question reference: S6W-07136
- Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 8 March 2022
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Current status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 22 March 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation it has made of the impact on the Scottish labour market of the UK Government’s proposed reduction in the time offered to unemployed social security recipients to seek work in their preferred job sector from three months to four weeks.
Answer
The Scottish Government routinely publishes a range of labour market statistics and analysis to monitor changes in our labour market. These can be accessed at the following link: Labour market statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
No evaluation of the UK Government’s proposed reduction in the time offered to unemployed social security recipients to seek work has been carried out by the Scottish Government. However, this recent announcement from the UK Government is yet another example of a system which doesn’t work well enough to help our most vulnerable people, in a time when support is most needed. Universal Credit, which is the responsibility of the UK Government, is too often failing the people it is designed to support and driving more people into poverty.