Social Security Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, February 11, 2021

Official Report 541KB pdf

---

Subordinate Legislation

---

Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Amendment (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/12)

Item 3 is subordinate legislation. I refer members to paper 4, which is a note by the clerk. The Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Amendment (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/12) are subject to the negative procedure. The regulations amend the council tax reduction regulations to disregard the £500 one-off payment to national health service and social care workers when calculating entitlement to a council tax reduction. The one-off payment is in recognition of people’s work on the front line during the pandemic.

I invite comments from members before I ask you whether you want to note the instrument. I see that our deputy convener wants to come in.

I support the regulations, which are necessary. However, it is worth noting that people who work part time in the NHS and who qualify for the payment have written to me to say that they will not get the full £500, because of various rules to do with universal credit. The regulations are important, but I wanted to note that there are other things that need to be done to make sure that everyone who qualifies for the £500 is able to get the full benefit of it.

Thank you very much. I endorse those comments. The solutions might sit elsewhere, as opposed to in the Scottish Parliament or Scottish Government, but I absolutely agree with what you said.

I agree with that, convener. Any other negative effects of the payment—for example, tax—should be dealt with by the UK Government. Making the payment is a great thing to do. I do not think that many of our NHS workers and care workers will be in the Forbes 500 list, so it is right that they get £500 from Forbes, as they are doing. It would be wrong if the amount was limited because of other regulations, so I fully support the regulations that we are considering. Two of my sisters work in care and NHS services, in the north of England and north Wales, and they are very envious when it comes to the payment that is being made. I am very supportive of it and I support changing the regulations to make sure that there is no clawback.

Thank you. I do not think that I have to declare an interest, but I should declare that my wife is a part-time critical care nurse in the NHS. I should put that on the record, in the context of the payment. I echo the points that you made, Mr Brown.

There are no other comments, so are members content to note the instrument? I will assume so, unless I see an indication otherwise in the chat box. I see that you are content.

Item 4 will be in private. To anyone who has been following this online, thank you for sticking with us throughout the meeting. We previously agreed that item 4 would be taken in private. I will see members shortly on another video platform to continue the meeting. Thank you.

10:19 Meeting continued in private until 10:49.