Hansard

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate. Achieving real, meaningful gender equality is right at the heart of this Government’s core objectives. We are absolutely committed to ensuring that equality of opportunity is embedded in everything that we do.

I thank the Welfare Reform Committee and those who gave evidence to inform the findings in the report. It is a comprehensive report and makes for interesting, if disturbing, reading. I recollect that a number of thoughtful submissions were made following the call for evidence that gave some quite compelling insights into the issues around the benefits regime that women face.

The cabinet secretary has already published the Government’s response to the report recommendations. There is much that we are already taking forward in relation to the issues that have been identified. Unfortunately, there is also much that demonstrates why so many of us wanted full devolution of social security.

Rest assured that this Government will continue to make the case to the UK Government that its austerity regime is punishing some of our most vulnerable people. The chancellor’s U-turn on tax credits shows that the Scottish Government was right to keep up its continued and constant pressure right up to the last minute, highlighting the damage that would be inflicted by changing the tax credit system and calling on George Osborne to reverse his proposal, as the changes would have had a devastating impact on the incomes of thousands of low-paid families—as the Scottish Government has consistently said.

Although I welcome the capitulation of the chancellor on tax credits, the Tories’ ideologically driven austerity agenda is still on course, because make no mistake: the cuts are still coming. There will still be £12 billion-worth of cuts to the welfare budget over the next five years, around £1 million of which will land on low-income families and individuals in Scotland.

I want to touch on some of the specific recommendations made in the report and some of the actions that the Scottish Government is taking to address them. Our analysts estimate that the cumulative impact of welfare cuts in Scotland is some £6 billion. This year alone, there will be cuts of just under £2.5 billion here in Scotland. That demonstrates the scale of the challenge that we face, as the “Women and Social Security” report made clear.

On the impact of welfare cuts on disabled women, we absolutely agree with the committee on the importance of maintaining the existing budget. That is why the fiscal framework is so important to the negotiations between the Scottish Government and the UK Government. I would hope that, as John Swinney said earlier, we can unite across the chamber to ensure that the transfer of powers comes with the full budget.

We have invested nearly £300 million over three years in welfare mitigation funding. From fully mitigating the bedroom tax to providing funding for food banks, we have taken a range of actions to shelter people from the worst of the Tories’ damaging welfare policies.

We are already using the powers that we have to improve outcomes; as Clare Adamson said, we now have an opportunity through the new powers to make progress on providing a quality service that is more joined up and delivers a better service to women.

The committee, like the Scottish Government, has heard a wealth of evidence on issues to do with disabilities assessment. The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that a Scottish social security system has at its heart a set of principles and values that ensure that people are treated with respect and dignity when applying for, being assessed for, and receiving disability-related benefits.

We will also ensure that people are provided with relevant information to make them aware of how the system will work for them and how long decisions will take. We will ensure that it is a fair, efficient and, importantly, person-centred system. That is how people will regain their trust in social security.

The Scottish Government has already announced measures that will help women, who are often carers. Earlier in the autumn, we announced that we would abolish the UK Government’s 84-day rule so that families who face higher living costs due to their child’s illness or disability will not be penalised when their child goes into hospital or has necessary medical treatment.

We have also said—as Clare Adamson alluded to—that carers will be placed at the heart of the devolved carers allowance and we will begin to increase the rate of the allowance to that of jobseekers allowance.

A number of recommendations in the committee’s report relate to universal credit flexibilities. We welcome some of the flexibilities given through the Scotland Bill and have already stated our commitment to use them to allow households to request that we pay rent directly to social landlords and to move away from monthly payments.

I know that many organisations that work with vulnerable women want to see a split-payment option. We are listening carefully to such input and will monitor how that could work in practice when universal credit is rolled out fully.

The report touched on employment and women in low-paid work. Progress is being made in a range of areas. The female employment rate in Scotland is 71.1 per cent, compared with the UK rate of 69 per cent. According to figures from Skills Development Scotland, the number of female modern apprentices has increased from 27 per cent in 2008-09 to 40 per cent in 2014-15.

Female learners also outnumber males at college, when measured by head count and full-time equivalent. More encouraging still, the number of women studying full-time courses has increased 15 per cent since 2006-07. The gender pay gap is lower in Scotland than in the rest of the United Kingdom but much more can still be done. As part of the delivery of our economic strategy, we have established the fair work convention and launched the Scottish business pledge. Those will all help to make a meaningful difference and ensure appropriate representation of all women in the workplace.

The report recognised the difficulties that women face in going back to work and having caring responsibilities. The Scottish Government is committed to supporting and helping to deliver family-friendly, flexible working in Scotland. One step that the Scottish Government is taking is to increase the provision of childcare to improve outcomes for children and support more women back into work. By the end of the next session of Parliament, we will double the number of hours from 16 to 30 and we will look at having flexible hours for childcare.

We acknowledge the committee’s recommendation that employment programme support should include tailored English language support for refugees. That is important, particularly for women. It is recognised that women lose out in that respect because, while children can learn English at school and men can work, women experience various difficulties in getting a national insurance number. We have taken that on board with our current refugee programme and in the package that local authorities are building up for the refugees who we are taking in from the Syrian crisis. We will ensure that English language support is very much at the heart of that and that women are very much included in that support.

I want to say a bit about what Clare Adamson called “the S word”. It is a matter of genuine regret to me that conditionality and the benefit sanctions regime were not devolved as part of the Smith settlement. We continue to believe that the sanctions system is harsh and pushes people into crisis. It is clear that it needs wholesale reform. We remain of the view that an independent review of the sanctions regime is necessary.

I thank the Welfare Reform Committee again and welcome the report and today’s debate. The Scottish Government fully recognises the disproportionate impact that the UK Government’s welfare changes have had on women and children. In our engagement, we have worked closely with women’s groups to ensure that we understand the issues faced.

New powers on social security and employment provide us with an opportunity to have a Scottish social security system that delivers for women. Be assured that this Government will do everything that we can to make the most of that opportunity.