Latest news with #CitizensAdviceScotland
The Herald Scotland
05-07-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Compassion should be at the heart of welfare reform
We must remember that people affected by these issues are already struggling to cope: 67% of those seeking advice from a Scottish CAB have a disability or long-term health condition which adds significant financial and emotional cost to their lives, especially for those in remote and rural communities. People don't have enough to live on; many are grappling with debt and destitution. And such poverty is both a consequence and cause of disability and ill health, meaning the need for social security has grown alongside poverty rates. As things stand, there will be no changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) until a review has been completed in late 2026. Importantly, the UK Government has now pledged in the meantime to engage in meaningful consultation with disabled groups about future welfare provision. This is vital. It should have happened in the first place. Sick and disabled people must be able to help shape the policies that will have such a profound effect on their lives and livelihoods. We hope the review will learn from a similar review conducted into Scotland's equivalent of PIP, Adult Disability Payment. It remains unclear what impact the reforms will have on devolved social security in Scotland. Complexity could be added to the system, making it more difficult for people to claim payments they're entitled to. It is imperative the UK Government works closely with the Scottish Government to avoid this. The bill now moves to the next stage of Parliamentary scrutiny; there will be more opportunities to shape the legislation in the coming months. We remain deeply concerned about many of the changes, and the holes that they could create in the social security safety net. Holes that many could fall through, including people with fluctuating health conditions, or those who experience sudden injury or illness and are unable to work or need recovery time. Social security is an investment in all of us. It should be both a safety net and a springboard; enabling people to realise their potential and providing support during the storms of life that any of us could experience. The UK Government must work collaboratively now; to map out how social security can be reformed in a way that's not just about cost-cutting but social justice too. We're talking here about some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Compassion should not be an optional extra in this process. It should be right at the heart of it. Erica Young is part of the social justice team at Citizens Advice Scotland
The Herald Scotland
28-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
How private firms are siphoning money from social security
Such firms offer services such as filling in claim forms and medical questionnaires, communicating with the Department for Work and Pensions and preparation for tribunals. Read More: Often targeted by social media advertising, people are paying up to £400 plus VAT per successful application for things like the Pension Age Disability Payment (PADP) and the Adult Disability Payment (ADP). Companies are deducting as much as 10% from ongoing monthly payments, potentially earning up to thousands of pounds over years. CAS offers free advice to those in need of social security, helping close to 192,000 people in 2023-24. David Hilferty, director of impact at Citizens Advice Scotland said: "This is a pernicious practice – profiteering from people who need support most. "It is the very worst kind of innovation and opportunism, clearly undermining the policy intent of these payments to provide vital financial support to those who need it most. "Expert, impartial, and confidential advice should be free of charge to everyone who needs it in Scotland. "
Daily Record
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Record
Scots charity says Labour welfare cuts will 'rip gaping holes' in support for vulnerable
Citizens Advice Scotland has criticised the welfare reforms as well as the last minute changes to the bill A top Scottish charity has dismissed Keir Starmer's concessions on his welfare cuts bill as 'nowhere near enough'. Citizens Advice Scotland said the decision to exempt existing claimants only from tougher eligibility rules creates a 'two tier' system. The Labour Government was under huge pressure over plans to slash around £5bn from the disability and sickness benefits bill. But Ministers made a late-night climbdown ahead of Tuesday's vote by watering down the cuts package. All current Personal Independent Payment recipients - a benefit devolved to Holyrood - will not now be affected by the crackdown. New claims from November 2026 will come under the tightened rule regime. The concessions are expected to head off a major rebellion by Labour MPs, but CAS hit out at the revised plan. CAS spokesperson Emma Jackson said: 'The concessions that have been reported are nowhere near enough. Creating a two-tier system is highly problematic. It seems the UK Government's message is: you're ok if you are disabled today, but good luck if you become disabled tomorrow. 'Furthermore, it appears none of the issues that the reforms risk for people in Scotland have been addressed, like guaranteeing the passporting capacity of the adult disability payment. Without this huge uncertainty exists. 'Social security is an investment in all of us that should act as both a safety net and springboard; enabling people to realise their potential and providing support during the challenges of life that any of us could experience. 'These reforms will rip gaping holes into the system that so many depend on. In a just and compassionate society, we cannot allow this to happen. We urge the UK Government to halt these reforms altogether and engage with meaningful consultation and co-design with disabled people.' Over 100 Labour MPs, including 12 from Scotland, had signed up to an amendment to the welfare bill that would have wrecked the entire package. Asked whether he was confident the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill would now pass, health minister Stephen Kinnock told Times Radio: 'Yes.' One of the MP rebels, Dame Meg Hillier, appeared satisfied with the compromise: 'This is a positive outcome that has seen the Government listen and engage with the concerns of Labour MPs and their constituents. 'It's encouraging that we have reached what I believe is a workable compromise that will protect disabled people and support people back into work while ensuring the welfare system can be meaningfully reformed. This means that disabled people currently in receipt of Pip and the health element of universal credit will continue to receive the same level of support.' Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall: 'I hope these changes will mean we get support for our Bill, a Bill that wants to ensure fairness in the welfare system for people who really need support. It's really important that we make changes in the future so the welfare state is there for people who really, really need it.' She said of claims about a ' two tier ' system: 'Well the changes that we are introducing will make sure existing claimants are unaffected, but we also all agree that there do need to be changes in the future to make sure that people who can work do, so we protect those who can't but we make the welfare state sustainable for the future.' SNP Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: 'The changes now being proposed by the UK Government would create a two-tier system, which cannot be fair. 'And this half U-turn still does not scrap the rule which will deny Personal Independence Payment to people unless they score four points or more for at least one activity. This will prevent support for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities in the future. 'These reforms have been shambolic from the start. They will be hugely damaging to those who rely on social security support, and still seek to balance the books by targeting the most vulnerable.'
BBC News
27-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
What do UK welfare reforms mean in Scotland?
The UK government has confirmed it will scale back its planned welfare reforms in a bid to fight off a rebellion by backbench Labour MPs.A third of the Scottish group of Labour MPs were among the 120-odd who signed an amendment calling for the changes to be with much of social security devolved to Holyrood, what do the concessions now made by Sir Keir Starmer mean in Scotland?Details are still being confirmed ahead of votes at Westminster next Tuesday. But the headline is that instead of tightening who is eligible for certain disability and sickness benefits straight away, planned cuts will only hit future has its own devolved social security system, which puts limits on the direct impacts for people Credit still applies across the UK, so reforms to that will affect Scottish claimants. Or, to be exact, future claimants of the health element. Anyone currently in receipt of this will continue to get it, but anyone starting a claim in future may be assessed more the same cannot be said of the other major target of the reforms, the Personal Independence Payment (Pip).As of this summer, everyone who was on Pip is due to have been transferred to the Scottish equivalent, the Adult Disability Payment (ADP).There are still some outstanding questions. Citizens' Advice Scotland has questioned whether ADP will have the same "passporting" capacity as Pip, where eligibility for one benefit can provide access to others at a UK this is the kind of detail which will become clearer once legislation is amended at Westminster and as backroom officials get their heads together to iron out how things will work in practice. Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has been clear that the Scottish government "will not follow Labour's lead on any of these changes".We essentially have two governments moving in different directions when it comes to social of the latest U-turn, the UK government is still keen to get a grip on welfare spending in light of a forecast £30bn increase in the cost of working-age health-related watchword has long been about getting people back into work and keeping budgets from ballooning in future the Scottish government prides itself on taking a more generous has set up new offerings like the Scottish Child Payment, currently set at £27.15 per week for eligible modelling suggests that policy alone will keep 40,000 children out of relative poverty this year. How much does Scotland spend on social security? Ministers have also uprated benefits by inflation each year - including the new winter fuel payment, allowing them to trumpet that it is a more generous offering than that available down south, even if the difference is only £ security thus accounts for an increasingly large share of the Scottish government's Scottish Fiscal Commission says spending on it was £6.1bn in latest forecast for next year is £7.7bn, and the figure is due to pass £9bn by Adult Disability Payment makes up the lion's share of that figure, with the cost set to hit £5bn by the end of the almost ten times more than the Scottish Child Payment (£517m in 2029-30), and almost thirty times more than the devolved winter fuel payment (£174m) - benefits which politicians spend far more time talking a reminder that there can be a big difference between the political importance of a policy and the financial weight of key question is how this is all going to be paid the end of the day John Swinney has the same problem as Sir Keir Starmer - budgets are finite, and costs are on social security in Scotland is already £1.2bn higher than the block grant which comes from Westminster. The gap is forecast to grow to £2bn by £2bn that the Scottish government has to find elsewhere in its budget. Or raise from if the UK government does ultimately reduce its welfare spending, that will in turn reduce the amount of funding flowing to Holyrood and widen the financial gap. Sir Keir's original plan was to save £5bn by 2030. Some analysis is suggesting the cuts may be closer to £3bn government officials are already scratching their heads about what this means for their own have fluctuated quite a bit as policy has shifted at Westminster, so it's hard to predict what the figures will be until the chancellor announces if we remain in a position where the UK government is seeking to cut its welfare bill while the Scottish government's one increases, it's obvious that the financial gulf is going to SNP administration has already leaned on its powers over income tax to fund some of this extra spending, with ministers again proud to talk about a more "progressive" system that asks those with the broadest shoulders to pay more to support public Finance Secretary Shona Robison has been clear that they can't keep going back to the well on that front. Further tax rises have already been ruled out for the rest of this parliamentary they have embarked on a programme of public service reform, which includes targets to reduce the public sector workforce by 0.5% per year and to cut the cost of running government and public bodies.A previous commitment to universal entitlements has also fallen by the wayside. When setting up the Scottish version of the winter fuel payments, ministers had insisted on a universal approach - at the very least a payment to all households, if not all individual they have now decided to copy the UK government's model of automatically clawing back payments from better-off households, and targeting funds at those most in the end of the day, all of this feeds into the politics of next year's Holyrood election, with the SNP and Labour already locked in a fierce battle for a fairly similar chunk of the Swinney built his efforts to turn around the SNP's fortunes after last year's general election drubbing on a pledge to mitigate the two-child cap on some UK benefit this is something which has a much bigger political impact than a financial one. The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC), which provides independent economic forecasts, reckons this will cost about £200m a year by the first minister has not missed an opportunity to hammer home his message that the SNP will be more generous to Scottish voters than Labour is being at Westminster. What will this mean at the polls? His party's campaigning is based very heavily on its record of big-state interventions and universal entitlements.A leaflet they circulated during last year's election campaign listing the SNP's achievements in office gave prominent place to the Scottish Child Payment, alongside free tuition; free personal care; free prescriptions; free bus travel; free school lunches; free baby boxes and free meanwhile, have majored on responsible stewardship of the public finances in their UK Scottish leader Anas Sarwar is not promising a tax-and-spend approach at says he'd ideally like to cut the tax burden, while maintaining spending on public services by growing the these are two parties which face similar problems in government - tight budgets, weak growth and spiralling answers they provide - and the extent to which voters trust them to deliver on them - are going to play a critical role in next May's election.
The Herald Scotland
23-05-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Why welfare reforms don't need to happen
In June, MPs will vote on proposals to reform disability and health-related social security. If the reforms pass, the incomes of millions of sick and disabled people across the UK will be dramatically reduced. Evidence from across the Citizens Advice network in Scotland shows that disabled people already experience disproportionate harm with many forced to endure poverty and inequality. More than two-thirds (67%) of people seeking advice from a CAB have a disability or long-term health condition. This comes at significant cost, especially for those in remote and rural communities. People don't have enough to live on, many are grappling with debt and destitution, and physical and mental health is getting worse. Poverty is a consequence and cause of disability and ill health, meaning the need for social security has grown alongside poverty rates. One of the proposals seeks to radically narrow eligibility criteria for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) so that fewer people can receive this. PIP and its equivalent in Scotland, Adult Disability Payment (ADP), are enabling payments. They exist to cover the additional costs of disability or ill health. They're not means-tested or linked to the ability to work. Narrowing the criteria to access the daily living component of PIP – which includes support for preparing food or managing incontinence – will remove payments that enable many people to work. More than a quarter (27%) of those seeking ADP advice from our network are in employment. Removing people from the work force, which will happen if these proposals go head, is completely senseless. It's unclear what impact the reforms will have on devolved social security in Scotland. Alongside a dramatically reduced budget, complexity could be added to the system, making it more difficult for people to claim payments they're entitled to. It is imperative the UK Government works closely with the Scottish Government to avoid this. People urgently need reassurance, as is clear from the CEO of Glasgow Northwest CAB: "We've already seen a spike in demand from people asking what this is going to mean. People are so worried – I don't know how much more they can take. Or our advisers. How do we tell even more people who are cold and hungry, facing mounting debts and deteriorating health there's nothing else we can do to increase their incomes? This will be devastating for all of us." There's a choice to be made; improving the circumstances of sick and disabled people should not be a difficult one. It's clear for us when we hear the worry in the voices of our advisers and the thousands who visit our CABs, our leaders need to listen too – these reforms do not need to go ahead. Emma Jackson is head of Social Justice at Citizens Advice Scotland
