- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government what current benefits will be covered by the draft regulations for passported benefits.
Answer
The passported benefits covered by the regulations are: Legal Aid, Court Fee Exemptions, Free School Lunches, Education Maintenance Allowance, Individual Learning Accounts, NHS Optical Vouchers, Free NHS Dental Treatment, NHS Patient Travel Costs, Blue Badge Parking, Concessionary Bus Travel and Student Loan Exemptions.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government whether the draft regulations for passported benefits will cover all who currently qualify for these.
Answer
The Regulations relating to income based passported benefits are designed to allow claimants on the Universal Credit pathfinder scheme, which begins in the Greater Manchester area later this year, to be able to claim income based passported benefits in the situation that any such claimants move to Scotland. This will have no impact on people who currently qualify for passported benefits. The Regulations relating to disability related passported benefits maintain passporting arrangements in Scotland to the National Concessionary Travel Scheme (NCTS), the Blue Badge Parking Scheme and Exemption from Repayment for Student loans for Higher Education.
We expect the numbers of people who will be entitled to Personal Independence Payments will be fewer than those who received Disability Living Allowance, therefore, we are putting in place transitional protections for those people who may no longer be able to passport to the NCTS and the Blue Badge Scheme. Further information on the impacts of these new passporting arrangements is available in my letter of 22 February 2013 to the Convener of the Welfare Reform Committee. It is available at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_Welfare_Reform_Committee/papers_05032013.pdf.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government how many people currently qualify for passported benefits, broken down by benefit.
Answer
The latest figures available for take up of passported benefits are shown on the following table:
| Benefit | Latest Numbers Held |
| Legal Aid | 2011-12 - 137,000 legal assistance cases (to nearest 1000). |
| Court Fee Exemptions | 2011-12 - 838 exemptions as a result of passported benefits, from 29,000 total exemptions. |
| Free School Lunches | 2012 - 130,477 children and young people in Scottish schools were registered to receive a free school lunch. This figure includes a small number of children in P1-P3, who might not meet the eligibility criteria prescribed in statue, but are registered to free school lunches as part of local initiatives designed to promote healthy eating in the early years. [Source: Summary statistics for attainment, leaver destinations and healthy living, No. 2: 2012 Edition, published June 2012] |
| Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) | 2011-12 - 34,390 young people received an EMA. |
| Individual Learning Accounts (ILA) | 2011-12 54,082 individuals funded learning using an ILA account. |
| NHS Optical Vouchers | Year ending March 2012 - 340,258 voucher claims processed for the provision of glasses/contact lenses for those on a passported benefit. However, this is a demand led service with information collected on the number of claims processed in respect of eligible people who have received a voucher towards the cost of glasses/contact lenses. An individual may receive more than one voucher a year if it is considered necessary. |
| Free NHS Dental Treatment | No figures are published. This is a demand led service which those in receipt of a passported benefit access as needed. Claims are submitted and counted for individual courses of treatment, not for individuals, and an individual may receive more than one course of treatment in a year if necessary. |
| NHS Patient Travel | This information is not collected centrally. |
| Blue Badge Parking | 125,534 out of a total of 263,045 Blue Badges on issue at 31 March 2012 were awarded to individuals who passported automatically (without further assessment) to a Blue Badge. The 125,534 includes individuals in receipt of: the Higher Rate Mobility Component of Disability Living Allowance (HRMCDLA; a War Pensioners Mobility Supplement; a lump sum (at tariffs 1-8) of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme; blind or registered blind people. We are unable to extract from the total number of badges issued automatically how many were to individuals in receipt of HRCMDLA. [Source: Scottish Transport Statistics 2012] |
| Concessionary Travel | 283,650 people in Scotland are eligible for the higher rate of the mobility component of disability living allowance or the higher or middle rate of the care component of disability living allowance and could therefore apply for the National Concessionary Travel Scheme. Please note that this is the number for eligibility, not take up of the Scheme. [Source: DWP, Feb 2012] |
| Student Loans Exemptions | 2011-12 (academic year) under 50 borrowers were affected. |
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the annual returns from local authorities setting out how they have implemented the Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
Answer
Scottish Ministers will publish and lay before the Scottish Parliament by 30 September 2013 a report on the performance by local authorities of their function and performance in relation to the Disabled Persons’ Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with COSLA regarding the provision of resources to enable local authorities to carry out their duties under the Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-13108 on 8 March 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that local authorities comply with the Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
Answer
Compliance of the Disabled Persons’ Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009 is a matter for local authorities, not the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government what resources it currently allocates to each local authority to enable them to carry out their duties under the Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing local government in Scotland with almost £11 billion in 2012-13. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on what proportion of transitional costs for self-directed support has been spent on (a) staffing and (b) services.
Answer
This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. It is a matter for each local authority to decide how they will spend their transformation funding.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-12477 by Michael Matheson on 31 January 2013, whether the regulations will remove all existing charges for support services and what assessment has been made of the cost.
Answer
Charges for support to carers will be waived when the Regulations under the Self-directed Support (Scotland) Act 2013 come into force on 1 April 2014. This means that from that date any existing charges being made now for support provided to carers by local authorities will cease.
The vast majority of local authorities do not currently seek a contribution from carers for direct support provided to carers. In most cases, carers benefit from services put in place for the cared-for person. The regulations will prevent the introduction of charges from 1 April 2014. As part of the consultation on the regulations we will be seeking further information on costs to supplement the information we have.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there is less funding in 2014-15 to assist local authorities with the implementation of self-directed support.
Answer
The transformation funding, provided on a short term basis, has been allocated over a three year period between 2012-2015. The higher level of funding in the year 2013-2014 was intended to take into account the likely commencement of the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013.
