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I am happy to pass that question to the relevant people.

I can have a go. Where there is a lack of information and/or evidence explained in the financial eligibility form 2, SLAB can use its discretion to disregard income or capital where it considers it reasonable to do so in the circumstances or to provisionally assess financial eligibility based on the information that is available. Solicitors must explain those situations when making an application to ensure that SLAB is aware of why information might be missing and to avoid the application being rejected or abandoned. As a result of being in an abusive relationship, someone might have accumulated several debts. When calculating someone’s eligibility, SLAB will consider disposable income and debts such as loans, credit cards and store cards and it will make an allowance for the monthly payment towards those debts, but that is not unique to domestic abuse cases—

Absolutely. You are right to raise that issue.

I am grateful to the committee for inviting me to contribute to its consideration of the financial issues when someone leaves an abuser. Those issues are covered by many ministerial portfolios, so I will do my best to assist the committee, and I am more than happy to provide supplementary information about issues that cross into other portfolios.

I begin by stressing that the Government is resolute in its belief that coercive control, including financial abuse, has no place in Scottish society. That is why we introduced the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which criminalises such behaviour.

As many respondents have noted, “Equally Safe: Scotland’s Strategy for Preventing and Eradicating Violence Against Women and Girls” explicitly addresses financial and economic abuse, in the recognition that perpetrators control finances and women’s access to employment and opportunities and to highlight the fact that women’s financial inequality with men enables such abuse. The strategy acknowledges that structures and systems exacerbate that inequality and act as barriers to women leaving abusive relationships. Under the auspices of the strategy, it is imperative that we continue to identify and address the barriers that hinder survivors from leaving abusers.

I recognise the importance of social security. Scotland has built a radically different social security system, which supports those who need it, including women and children who experience domestic abuse. Social Security Scotland staff, including a dedicated safeguarding team, are trained to identify and support those who are experiencing abuse. However, as the committee is aware, much of social security in Scotland—particularly universal credit—remains reserved to the United Kingdom Government. I note the many comments from stakeholders regarding UK Government benefits, and I am sure that the committee will want to engage with the Department for Work and Pensions on those matters.

We remain keen to work with the DWP—for example, on splitting the universal credit payment, which stakeholders have told us is essential to removing a major enabler of domestic abuse. Although the Scottish Government has limited powers to change how universal credit is paid in Scotland, the delivery of split payments remains entirely dependent on the DWP.

Regarding council tax, we acknowledge that joint and several liability may sometimes cause harm, which is why we are committed to supporting an amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Bill that would require a review of the impact of that in cases of domestic abuse. That is a crucial step in helping councils to handle such sensitive situations with care and understanding.

Our programme for government commits us to taking forward actions that were set out in the recently published discussion paper on legal aid reform, which include bringing forward regulations to simplify the judicare system.

We are determined to support women to get the access that they need. We have provided funding for a pilot project in Edinburgh that provides an early intervention service to offer legal advice to women and children who are impacted by domestic abuse. Next week, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety is due to give evidence to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on what the Government is doing on civil legal aid.

It is important to recognise that the no recourse to public funds condition is applied to people who are subject to immigration control under law that is wholly reserved to the UK Government. Our position is that the UK Government should immediately cease to apply the no recourse to public funds condition to people who are in vulnerable circumstances, including women who are experiencing domestic abuse. Through our ending destitution together strategy, we seek to mitigate and prevent destitution for people with no recourse to public funds, and we support the fair way Scotland partnership to deliver inclusive casework and emergency cash support for people who have no recourse to public funds. We continue to press the UK Government to extend the migrant victims of domestic abuse concession to make it available to anyone who is in the UK as a dependant on someone else’s visa or protection status.

The Government recognises the need to ensure that service provision is fit for purpose and responds to the needs of those whom it is designed to benefit. We are committed to ensuring that we have a process in place to keep improving and to deliver. I look forward to engaging with the committee.

You raise sensible points, Mr Doris. We have an ethos of always strongly encouraging decision makers who are awarding crisis grants to be aware that any awards made must cover the period of crisis to avoid the need for repeat applications. If it is known that the next payment for an applicant who is on universal credit is more than two weeks away, the decision maker can make an award that is longer in duration. That flexibility is there, but you make a good point about the need to ensure more consistency. Is that what you are getting at?

I will bring in Janine Kellett to answer the part of the question on housing.

Yes.

I will come back in on that one. Council tax is a local tax, and local authorities already have the power to write off council tax arrears. We are fully aware that there are unique circumstances involved in the collection of council tax, such as joint and several liabilities, which can cause harm in cases of domestic abuse. That is why we are supporting an amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Bill that requires a review of how council tax arrears can affect those people who are experiencing domestic abuse. That will be a critical step to better inform policy and improve support. As James Messis has referred to, we are exploring that issue through a partnership with local government and the joint working group on council tax reform.

The council tax reduction scheme exists to ensure that nobody in Scotland should have to meet a council tax liability—clearly, if people cannot afford it and there is no way that they will be able to pay it, they should not be expected to. The scheme reduces a household’s liability based on the assessment of their income, capital and other circumstances. The long and short of it is that councils already have the ability to write off council tax debt.

I will bring James Messis in on that question.

I am not sure what you are trying to—