Since the passing of the Scotland Act in March 2016, officials from the Scottish Government have held frequent discussions with officials from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about a range of policy, operational and delivery issues to ensure the safe and secure transfer of the 11 devolved benefits and the Universal Credit flexibilities. This has included a number of discussions about Universal Credit split payments.

Ensuring equality of opportunity to enable people to join and move through the organisation is a key consideration within Scottish Government, including ensuring our people are able to access the equipment and environment required to allow them to contribute fully.

In addition to any accessibility features built into operating systems and standard software packages, the following software is classed as Assistive Technology and is currently available and for use on the Scottish Government’s IT network:

JAWS (version 18)

ZoomText (version 11)

Dragon Professional (version 15)

TextHelp (version 11.5)

Kurzweil 1000 (version 14.02)

MindGenius (version 6)

As new versions of these software packages are released then these will be made available.

In cases where the Universal Credit minimum income floor had been applied an applicant could potentially receive a lower level of Council Tax reduction. The Scottish Government is currently exploring options for changes to the CTR scheme in light of Universal Credit and the changing benefit landscape, and the minimum income floor will form part of those considerations.

We have not carried out a formal assessment of the impact of the minimum income floor on the Council Tax Reduction scheme. The Scottish Government will continue to proactively amend the Council Tax Reduction scheme where evidence indicates any element of its impact or operation is unsatisfactory.

The Scottish Government does not collect this information, and we are not aware which, if any, local authorities choose to do so.

Access by Social Security Scotland staff to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Central Payments System (CPS) will be via backend API (application programming interface) calls which take place ‘system to system’ as opposed to a member of staff accessing the CPS system directly on screen. Therefore, Social Security Scotland staff would not require any accessibility programs they use to be compatible with DWP’s Central Payments System in itself.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15424 on 18 April 2018. The Scottish Government is working with the UK Government to understand the impact on households across the income distribution of the combined income tax and UC policies before deciding what action, if any, is taken. UC computations are carried out by DWP and the power to change these is reserved to the UK Government.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish and UK Governments are considering this issue in relation to the no detriment provisions of the Fiscal Framework.

Paragraphs 89 and 90 relate specifically to welfare benefits introduced by the Scottish Government. These provisions do not apply for the purposes of Scottish income tax policy.

Some households will receive more UC as a result of paying more income tax. It is not yet possible to determine whether this will result in a net gain (or a net loss) for the UK or Scottish Governments.

The Scottish Government does not have access to the data required to provide robust estimates and has asked the UK Government to share its data. The majority of current UC claimant households will not be affected by the interaction at all because they will not include any individuals who pay income tax. The size of the portion who are affected will depend on the pattern of UC rollout and migration.

The latest Department for Work and Pensions statistics indicate there are 65,000 Scottish households in receipt of Universal Credit as of December 2017. Based on the latest forecast data shared with us by DWP, we estimate that there would be around 150,000 Scottish households in receipt of Universal Credit by the end of the 2018-19 tax year but very few of these will include individuals who pay income tax. Some households will receive more UC as a result of paying more income tax. It is not yet possible to determine whether this will result in a net gain (or a net loss) for the UK or Scottish Governments.

Scottish Government is currently working with the UK Government to define the interactions for different household types, and what the net effect of the two policies will be before agreeing what further action, if any, needs to be taken.