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The Scottish Government set out its' ambition to extend Winter Fuel Payments to families with disabled children on the higher rate of DLA as part of the Consultation on Social Security in Scotland in July 2016.

The commitment to extending winter fuel payments to families with severely disabled children was also included in our Programme for Government published in September 2016. Details of our Programme for Government were shared with the UK government as a matter of course.

We are actively working with the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure that the devolution of powers works for both the people of Scotland the UK.

The Scottish Government doesn’t receive any information from the DWP about clients who may have been overpaid Carer’s Allowance.

No payments of Carer’s Allowance Supplement have been recovered and a recovery process has not been initiated for any payments.

I refer to the answer to S5W-19086. The Scottish Government will publish national level spend detail on Fair Start Scotland in due course. The Scottish Fiscal Commission will publish their next forecasts of Fair Start Scotland expenditure on 12 December to accompany the Scottish Budget.

At present, no members of the Social Security Scotland Senior Management Team or Executive Advisory Body have self-declared as identifying as black or minority ethnic.

In 2019, the Social Security Programme Board is expected to give a formal view on the Go/No Go for Best Start Grant – Phase 2, Funeral Expense Assistance and Young Carer Grant.

The Social Security Programme Board has already provided a formal view on Carer’s Allowance Supplement and Best Start Grant - Phase 1 to go live.

Under section 81(5)(b) of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, Scottish Ministers must publish a statement explaining how they have calculated inflation. In line with our commitment to annually uprate the Carer’s Allowance Supplement we will publish the statement before the start of the new tax year.

Sections 77 and 78 relate to uprating of devolved social security assistance.

Carer’s Allowance will be uprated (in line with inflation) this coming spring, and we intend to lay the necessary legislation early in the new year. This is unrelated to sections 77 and 78 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. Carer’s Allowance Supplement will also be uprated in spring and the mechanism for that is set out in section 81 of the Act.

Draft regulations for Funeral Expense Assistance will be brought forward next year for Parliamentary approval, and until payments of this assistance have begun to be made, commencement of sections 77 and 78 of the Act would serve no purpose.

To date no risks or issues have been escalated by the responsible and accountable officers on the Social Security Programme Board to the Scottish Government Corporate Board, Executive Team or Ministers. We can confirm that the Social Security Programme has well established and robust governance structures, processes and mechanisms in place which will facilitate the escalation of risks and issues to corporate and ministerial level as and when appropriate.

The categorised numbers of enquiries and complaints received in relation to Carer’s Allowance Supplement (CAS) are detailed in the following tables.

Enquiries