Meeting of the Parliament 10 December 2025
If Mr Hoy had wanted more time, he should have given the whole afternoon to this debate, and I would have been delighted to discuss the issue with him in further detail.
We balance our budget every year, despite more than a decade of welfare cuts from successive UK Governments. We recognise the fiscal challenges that face the public finances, which is why we have a strategy and a plan in place for a sustainable path. Let us be very clear that the budget process is under way, but this SNP Government will stand resolutely behind the support that we deliver for people. Unlike Westminster, we will not be cutting support for disabled people, and we will never accept cruel policies such as the two-child limit.
On future spending, it is important to emphasise that the proportion of the resource budget that the Scottish Government has chosen to invest in enhancing social security—compared with the proportion invested in England and Wales—is projected to increase by less than 1 per cent by 2029-30 compared with the current financial year. Other than retaining the two-child limit, we have still to hear—despite the point being raised this afternoon—which one of the benefits the Conservatives would cut. Would they cut benefits from disabled people or their carers, whom I met this morning, or from those on low incomes, including those who are in work?
Mr Stewart mentioned the adult disability payment in particular. The expenditure on ADP is indeed forecast to exceed the value of the block grant, because we have chosen to take a fairer approach. I note the comments from the Auditor General for Scotland, when he said:
“We assess that this has been a successful project.”—[Official Report, Public Audit Committee, 1 October 2025; c 4.]
I note that the Resolution Foundation, in an update that it published on Monday, said:
“the introduction of ADP shows that improving the claimant experience is not at odds with keeping caseloads and costs under control”.
It also said that
“By 2025, there is no evidence that ADP is a more leniently-awarded benefit than PIP”,
and that
“the latest data does not suggest that ADP is a ‘soft touch’.”
We have a benefits system that is robust but fair. It is an investment in the people of Scotland. I am sorry that the Scottish Conservatives feel that they wish to turn their backs on the people of Scotland; that perhaps points towards some of the polling evidence that we have seen today. Nevertheless, we will continue to bring forward a social security system that works for, and delivers for, the people of Scotland, and I am proud to take that to the people next year.
I move amendment S6M-20056.3, to leave out from first “believes” to end and insert:
“reaffirms its commitment to the social security principles contained in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 and unanimously adopted by the Parliament, including that social security is an investment in the people of Scotland and is itself a human right; welcomes the abolition of the two-child limit across the UK; calls on the UK Labour administration to go further and scrap other damaging welfare reforms implemented by the previous UK administration, including the benefit cap, and supports the Scottish Government’s commitment to reinvest funding to end the two-child limit in further measures to tackle child poverty in Scotland.”
15:01Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.