Hansard

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on behalf of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

According to the UK Government, the overarching policy objective of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill is to safeguard the public purse against fraud and error. The bill seeks to help the UK Government to address losses due to fraud and error occurring outside the tax and benefit systems. It will also introduce new powers to help the Department for Work and Pensions to address fraud and error in the social security system and to recover overpayment debt.

The LCM sets out the aspects of the bill that apply to the devolved benefits that are delivered under agency agreement with the DWP. The Scottish Government has established agency agreements to enable the DWP to continue to administer benefits on the Scottish Government’s behalf until Social Security Scotland’s equivalent benefits have been created and until those in receipt of benefits administered by the DWP have been transferred to Social Security Scotland.

The Scottish Government expects to complete the transfer of benefits by the end of this year, except for two benefits—the severe disablement allowance and the industrial injuries disablement benefits. The committee welcomed confirmation from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice that the transfer of cases for devolved benefits would be completed prior to the provisions of the UK bill coming into force.

The Scottish Government is asking Parliament to consent only to the relevant provisions that are included in the LCM. Clauses 88 to 95 and schedule 5 relate to overpayment, debt recovery and enforcement. The Scottish Government is not seeking legislative consent for those provisions.

The bill contains provisions in relation to the eligibility verification measure. If consent was granted, those provisions would allow the DWP to request large data sets from organisations such as banks in order to identify those in receipt of benefits who do not meet the relevant eligibility criteria. The cabinet secretary confirmed that there is no intention from either the Scottish ministers or the UK Government to add devolved benefits to the scope of those powers.

The bill also contains provisions in relation to overpayment recovery. If consent was granted, those provisions would provide the DWP with new options for enforcing recovery of overpayments when other routes of recovery have failed. That would include recovering direct from an individual bank account. Individuals could also be disqualified from driving for a period of up to two years if they have an outstanding overpayment and all other recovery attempts have failed.

The cabinet secretary told the committee that the UK Government had confirmed its intention to amend the bill to exempt Scottish devolved benefits from the scope of the new overpayment recovery powers. It would be helpful to know when those amendments might be expected. It would also be helpful if the cabinet secretary was able to confirm whether the Scottish Government intends to lodge a supplementary LCM and, if so, the provisions that that would relate to.

Following the evidence that was received, the Social Justice and Social Security Committee was content to recommend to the Parliament that consent be given for the relevant provisions that are covered by LCM-S6-55.