Social Justice and Social Security Committee 18 December 2025
We are still assessing that at the moment. It is clear that some aspects of the UK strategy will have an impact across the UK and other aspects are England only, for example.
For example, some aspects concern parents on low incomes who are accessing childcare and need to return to work after parental leave to increase their earned income—and that is welcome. We know that the uptake of the universal credit childcare element remains low, and it appears that much of that is to do with a lack of awareness of support and of the availability of eligible services, as well as the genuine complexity of the system.
There is a lack of clarity as to how support with up-front childcare costs for those returning from parental leave will be delivered in practice, with stakeholders advising that awareness of the Jobcentre Plus-led flexible support fund is very poor. There is therefore work to be done on the implementation of the policy to ensure that the UK Government is working to develop the take-up of some of the schemes that it is providing.
Although any proposed increases in the statutory minimum wage rates are of course welcome, the UK national living wage is still not the real living wage, and that difference needs to be recognised. As I think I said earlier to Claire Baker, we are still modelling the impact that those changes will have on Scotland through the work that is being done in drafting the child poverty delivery plan.