Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official statistics, covering the first months of applications for the Best Start Grant, will be published in April 2019. More detailed analysis will be published in a quarterly publication series starting from August 2019. In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, care will be taken to ensure that these publications are produced to a level of quality that meets users’ needs. Published data will be subject to disclosure control methods to protect the confidentiality of the data. There will be scope to analyse redeterminations made, processed and the outcomes, if we are satisfied with the quality of the data and can safeguard the confidentiality of individuals.

This information was provided by Citizens Advice Scotland. Performance information on the Financial Health Check Service will be submitted to the Scottish Government on a quarterly basis. We have not yet received the first performance report.

The target set for the service is to deliver a Financial Health Check to 15,000 households in Scotland per annum. We will monitor the quarterly update reports provided by Citizens Advice Scotland to gauge whether the service is successful. Our decision will be based on the data submitted for the following agreed key performance indicators:

Number of clients accessing the service

Profile of clients

Client financial gain

Client satisfaction

Client financial confidence

Improved mental health as a result of the check.

The Scottish Government has very limited administrative flexibilities over Universal Credit. These are laid out in the Scotland Act 2016, giving Scottish Ministers the power to change when and to whom Universal Credit is paid, and to vary the amount of housing costs included in the award. We have used these to good effect by introducing the Universal Credit Scottish choices. This does not, however, change the fact that Universal Credit remains reserved to the UK Government and with it the two child limit policy which we do not have the power to remove.

Having top up powers doesn’t mean we can change the benefit. The two child limit and rape clause will remain in place because these are the policy choices the UK Government has made and it is only right that they are the ones to take action to fix this.

The two child limit is a UK Government policy which the Scottish Government has repeatedly called for to be scrapped. The changes announced by the UK Government last week show that it too now finally accepts that the policy is unfair. It should therefore scrap the cap for all families.

The Scottish Government plans to spend over £125m in 2018-19 mitigating the impact of UK Government welfare cuts and on measures to help protect people on low incomes. In 2020/21 UK Government cuts including the two child cap are expected to take around £3.7 billion out of the Scottish welfare system- with £92m in 2020-21 due to the two child limit and the Scottish Government cannot be expected to continually mitigate to fill that gap.

It is the policy of the Scottish Government to continue to call for the two child limit to be scrapped for all families. The Scottish Government would not request information from the DWP on mitigation as this is not an SG policy.

The reviews are confidential to the Senior Responsible Owner.

Any request for copies of the review are directed to the Senior Responsible Owner.

The service was not procured. It is grant funded.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-20880 on 24 January 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Programme Board Dashboards are part of routine reporting, and as such any RAG statuses are provided for internal discussion and not made public, on the grounds that doing so would inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. The Programme Director’s Update is used to enable critical discussion that in turn supports the delivery of social security for Scotland.

Our assessment of the risk posed to Social Security Scotland by Serious and Organised Crime Groups takes place on an ongoing basis, and we have been consulting with experts and relevant organisations to understand these risks and to design responsive control measures. Further detail relating to this assessment is highly sensitive and cannot be shared in the public domain, however the agency’s Counter Fraud Strategy published in September 2018 outlines at high level the methods employed to adequately assess and mitigate the risk of fraud perpetrated by both internal and external threat actors, including that posed by Serious and Organised Crime Groups.