Meeting of the Parliament 27 June 2018
I welcome the new ministers—although I think that they have left the chamber—and I thank the outgoing ministers for their public service. I thank the Solicitor General and the convener of the DPLR Committee for setting out the positions of the Government and the committee on the bill and for highlighting some of the key issues.
There have been welcome changes on discoverability and other technical aspects, as we have heard during the debate. However, I want to focus on how the bill and the issues around it will impact on people.
In a past life, I worked for six years as a front-line housing officer in the social housing sector. I worked with tenants, housing associations and councils, and I took a great interest in the welfare rights side of the job. I tried to ensure that people received their entitlement and that the council or housing association was paid the rents and housing benefit that it was owed.
That job was a tremendous apprenticeship for going into politics, as I saw people’s lives in the raw. By going in and out of people’s houses every day and helping them deal with financial pressures, I gained an understanding of the stresses and strains that are put on families and communities. I gained an understanding of the crushing impact that debt can have on relationships and on mental and physical health and general wellbeing.
In cases of extreme debt, I had to invoke an eviction process that, ultimately, meant that people lost their homes. Housing officers in Scotland are faced with that awful dilemma every day. That is very grim and the worst part of the job, and it is also evidence of a failure of policy.
In my experience, many debts came on the back of problems in the benefits system that meant that people had their benefits stopped or reduced or that overpayments accrued through errors in the system.
I say that against the backdrop of the bill and, in particular, the exemption from five-year prescription of council tax and overpayments of reserved benefits, which means that people will be subject to a 20-year prescription period and possibly higher penalties after that debt is discovered. People might not be aware of that debt. They might have long since disposed of any files or records that they had at home that would help them address the debt when they discover that they have it. A six-year prescription period covers council tax and overpayments in England and Wales, but it will be 20 years in Scotland.
The Scottish Government took the correct action when it wrote off historical poll tax debts after almost 30 years. Under the proposed system, if it is enacted, people will have council tax debt hanging over them for up to 20 years. Let us think about that.
If the benefits system were starting from scratch and the UK Government proposed a six-year debt recovery period in England but a 20-year period in Scotland, there would rightly be an outcry, but that is what is being proposed in the bill. Mike Dailly from the Govan Law Centre made a very positive contribution to the committee’s proceedings, as did CAS and the Child Poverty Action Group. All of them share my belief that the law in Scotland on prescription for council tax and reserved benefits overpayments should be brought more into line with the law in England and Wales, and my Labour colleagues have said that today.
We believe that a five-year prescription period would bring Scotland more in line with what happens in England and Wales. If we do not see any movement on that point during the bill’s progression, we will bring forward an amendment on it at stage 2.
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