Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-06915

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how people eligible to receive at least one of the devolved benefits will be able to apply to join a social security experience panel.

People with recent experience of receiving benefits will be recruited to the panels in two ways – by direct invitation mailed to a representative sample of current benefit recipients and by an open invitation, publicly asking for volunteers.

After the launch, a registration form can be completed online at: www.gov.scot/socialsecurity. A form will also be available to download at: www.gov.scot/socialsecurity and can be returned by post. A Freephone number will be available for those who require additional support to register, and this will be available on the materials and on the website address above.

Question reference: S5W-06918

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the social security experience panels are being delivered by it or an external organisation.

Question reference: S5W-07192

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the response to question S5W-06218 by Angela Constance on 30 January 2017, whether the scoping exercise will conclude before the end of 2016-17 and, if so, whether the extent of funding required will be determined in 2017-18.

Question reference: S5W-06914

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when the social security experience panels will first meet.

Question reference: S5W-06917

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the recruitment process for the social security experience panels opened.

Question reference: S5W-06728

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what target it uses for reducing the rate of disability poverty.

The Scottish Government does not have a specific disability poverty target rate.

However our delivery plan ‘A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People’ sets out five long term ambitions aimed at changing the lives of disabled people in Scotland and ensuring that human rights are realised.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/12/3778

The plan sets out 93 actions which will be taken forward during the current parliamentary term, and includes halving the employment gap between disabled people and the rest of the working age population; setting a target to increase the percentage of disabled people in the public sector workforce; and increasing supply of wheelchair accessible housing.

Question reference: S5W-07172

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the test for absolute poverty in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill is reliant on net household income for the financial year 2010-11.

The absolute poverty target measures whether the poorest families are seeing their incomes rise over time (in real terms). It requires a choice of baseline year that is both sufficiently recent to reflect contemporary living standards and sufficiently far in the past to allow meaningful change to occur over time.

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill initially sets the baseline year for the absolute child poverty target as 2010-11 – the baseline used in the UK Child Poverty Act 2010 – but allows for the base year to be adjusted to better reflect contemporary living standards in advance of the target year 2030-31.

Question reference: S5O-00697

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have applied to join the social security experience panels, and how many have been accepted.

As I referenced in my statement to Parliament, I will announce more details on the Experience Panels in the next few weeks.

In advance of recruitment launching, those interested in taking part can email the Scottish Government researchers who are setting up the panels at SocialSecurityExperience@gov.scot. Details of those who have contacted us have been stored securely, and individuals will be
re-contacted with more information about how to register for the Panels when recruitment launches.

Question reference: S5F-00910

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2017

To ask the First Minister for what reason the wealth gap between rich and poor in Scotland is widening.

Question reference: S5W-06727

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it records and reports on the disability poverty rate.

The disability poverty rate is published each year in the ‘Poverty equality analysis’ and ‘Characteristics of poverty’ analysis on the poverty statistics pages of the Scottish Government website: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty. It is also subsequently published on the Equality Evidence Finder: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Equality/Equalities/DataGrid.

An individual is identified as being in relative poverty if they are living in a household whose total equivalised household income (including all earnings, benefits, pensions etc.) is below 60% of the UK median (middle) household income in that year.

Disability poverty rates are published showing both the proportion of people in a family with a disabled adult who are in relative poverty and the proportion of people in a family with a disabled child who are in poverty.

More information on the way in which poverty rates are calculated can be found in the Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland publication:http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty

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