Committee
Social Justice and Social Security Committee 21 March 2024
21 Mar 2024 · S6 · Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Item of business
Extra Costs of Disability
Chirsty McFadyen
Watch on SPTV
That comes back to the commitment to evidence-based policy making. We have done a short-term study, but more work could be done to understand the issue better. The first thing that I would do with the money would be to gather the evidence so that we had a good understanding of exactly what the additional costs are and whether needs are not being met and then base policy and benefits on that. On the evidence that we have gathered, I could not tell you how to spend the money. I know that that makes it even harder for you guys to decide where to put things. Therefore, for me, it is definitely about gathering more evidence first and trying to understand the issues so that we are not spending money in a way that is not evidence led and ending up having to go back and do things again.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Our next agenda item is a presentation on the additional costs of disability in Scotland. The committee commissioned a piece of research on the topic in Marc...
Chirsty McFadyen (University of Strathclyde)
Thank you very much for having us. I will start and then pass over to Laura Robertson to talk about some of our work. For context, I should say that I have ...
Dr Laura Robertson (The Poverty Alliance)
I will give the committee a bit of context about the diaries. As Chirsty McFadyen mentioned, the diaries looked specifically at needs that were not being met...
Chirsty McFadyen
I will talk a bit more about how we have broken down the data. First, on additional spending for those with more severe disabilities, we see similar results ...
Dr Robertson
I will talk the committee through two of the case studies from participants. I will touch on some of the consequences for their day-to-day lives while they s...
Chirsty McFadyen
I will conclude by saying that data on spending from the living costs and food survey shows that disabled households in Scotland spend slightly more in essen...
The Convener
SNP
I apologise, because I introduced you as Christy when your name is actually Chirsty. My humble apologies to you, Chirsty. The research that you have given ...
Chirsty McFadyen
One of the main things that I spoke about is the point that, if we want an evidence-driven policy approach, we need more evidence. Some surveys in Scotland, ...
The Convener
SNP
Dr Robertson, would you like to comment on that?
Dr Robertson
We already referenced other qualitative research from the Glasgow Disability Alliance. Inclusion Scotland also published research last year on the impacts of...
The Convener
SNP
That is helpful. I will open questions up to committee members.
Marie McNair
SNP
Thanks for your time this morning. In your conclusion, you have recommended that careful consideration be given to “how to measure additional costs of disab...
Chirsty McFadyen
Yes, definitely. We have done some work on learning disabilities at the Fraser of Allander Institute, and some of the work that we have done on data has been...
Marie McNair
SNP
That would be great. Thank you.
Jeremy Balfour
Con
It is helpful to read this report in the light of the other report that the Fraser of Allander Institute did recently on disability and employment. The repor...
Chirsty McFadyen
That comes back to the commitment to evidence-based policy making. We have done a short-term study, but more work could be done to understand the issue bette...
Dr Robertson
From the Poverty Alliance’s perspective, outside this research that we have been doing, we would call for an increase in incomes for people with a disability...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
I suppose that that is the issue that I am trying to work out, Dr Robertson. Personally, I probably fall into income group 5, but if you increase adult disab...
Dr Robertson
Yes. The example that was discussed in the previous evidence session was the Scottish child payment and the learning from that. That is a passported benefit ...
John Mason
SNP
I was struck by figure 1 on page 4 of our briefing, which showed that transport costs, in particular, were quite starkly different, which follows on from Jer...
Chirsty McFadyen
I think that it is a combination of things. The first thing that stands out to me is that we have UK-level evidence that disabled people travel less than non...
John Mason
SNP
So, the message is that we need a much more in-depth and bigger survey. I think that we are all agreed on that. Who should do that? Is it best for the Govern...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
The Fraser of Allander Institute. Laughter.
Chirsty McFadyen
It is difficult to say. What I always come back to is that, as long as something is well resourced, that is what is important. If a survey is well designed a...
John Mason
SNP
You said that there is a split between whether people’s activities are affected a lot or a little. Is that too basic? Do we need to go into a lot more detail...
Chirsty McFadyen
Based on the data that we have, we should not be splitting things any further, because it is already very difficult to understand. Jeremy Balfour mentioned s...
John Mason
SNP
Did you want to come in, Dr Robertson? Most of my questions were aimed at Ms McFadyen.
Dr Robertson
No. Chirsty is the expert on the questions that you asked.
The Convener
SNP
Chirsty, I believe that Jeremy Balfour was offering up your services again for further research. I now invite Bob Doris to come in.
Bob Doris
SNP
Thank you, convener, and thank you, Mr Balfour, for the namecheck. In the earlier session, I suggested an imaginary extra £10 million. It has doubled in the ...