Social Justice Secretary has urged the UK
Government to protect and enhance social security rather than
making cuts.
The UK Government's Universal Credit and Personal Independence
Payment Bill has been published today, which includes the details
of the first set of changes to ill-health and disability
benefits. The Scottish Government will not mirror the Personal
Independence Payment (PIP) changes in Adult Disability Payment in
Scotland.
Social Justice Secretary said:
“The UK Government's proposed reforms will be hugely damaging to
those who rely on social security support, particularly during
the ongoing cost of living crisis. These plans have yet to be
passed at Westminster, so there is still time for the UK
Government to step back from this damaging policy and I strongly
urge them to scrap their harmful proposals.
“The UK Government's own analysis highlights how the proposals
will push 250,000 more people across the UK into poverty -
including 50,000 children. With around half of all children in
poverty in Scotland living in a household with a disabled person,
the changes threaten to undermine the progress that we are making
to reduce child poverty, and the work of the UK Government's
Child Poverty Taskforce.
“That the UK Government is prioritising deep cuts to disabled
people's support is made even worse by their failure to abolish
the two-child limit, which is estimated to have pushed more than
35,000 children into poverty since July last year.
“The reforms do not reflect the Scottish Government's values. We
will not let disabled people down or cast them aside as the UK
Government has done. We will not cut Scotland's Adult Disability
Payment.
“The UK Government should follow our lead and protect the social
security safety system, rather than dismantling it. If they do
not, then disabled people can draw no other conclusion than the
UK Government remain content to balance the books on the backs of
the most vulnerable.”
