Pressure on to change failing benefits system
The impact of Universal Credit, and in particular the damaging effect of the implementation of benefit sanctions on claimants, is something that is regularly raised with my office, although the policy is one imposed on Scotland by the Tory UK Government.
Stirling’s Tory MP Stephen Kerr spoke in a debate late last year in which he stated:“I do not add my name to those calling for a pause or halt to the roll-out of Universal Credit because the roll-out is already planned to take nine years, and it is taking nine years because the Government are taking time to get it right.”
The problem for Mr Kerr is that his Tory Government are not getting Universal Credit right – far from it. I am hopeful, however, that an inquiry being undertaken by Parliament’s Work and Pensions Select Committee will offer an opportunity to pile pressure on the Tory UK Government to reform a failing sanctions system that is inflicting such misery on people.
The inquiry will examine how benefit sanctions currently operate, including recent developments with their operation, and what the evidence there is that these are in any way effective either to deter non-compliant behaviour or to help achieve the policy objectives of getting people off benefits and into work. I am keen to encourage any constituents who have experience of benefit sanctions to provide me with details of their experiences, so that these can be considered by the Select Committee.
Similarly, I hope that those agencies and charities dealing with the dire consequences of Tory benefit sanctions will provide evidence that can help the committee evaluate the operation of this policy, and make recommendations on how to improve this. I would welcome any comments via my constituency office on benefit sanctions by Friday, May 18, which I will compile and submit to be considered by the Select Committee.
Meanwhile, negotiations between the Scottish and UK Governments over the post-Brexit powers of the Scottish Parliament have been deliberately undermined by the actions of the Tory UK Government. Their latest and apparently final proposal would mean that powers currently devolved to the Scottish Parliament being seized and removed for up to seven years – whether or not the Scottish Parliament agrees.
The Scottish Government will not recommend consent to any arrangement which undermines the devolution settlement, with the Tories clearly using this bill as cover to attack and weaken devolution in what amounts to a blatant power grab.
Clause 11 of the bill hands control of devolved powers, currently subject to EU law, to Westminster, and the Scottish Parliament has unanimously agreed on a cross-party basis that the bill as it stands is“incompatible with devolution”. The Scottish Government has accepted during the negotiations that in some areas it could make sense to operate UK-wide policies or “frameworks”in some devolved policy areas, such as farming and fishing after Brexit, but this must be by agreement.
After all, we are talking about powers which are already clearly devolved, and therefore these frameworks must only be set up with the consent of Holyrood, not imposed from on high by a contemptuousWestminster Government which sees the Scottish Parliament not as a partner but as a subordinate. The fundamental point of principle that the Scottish Government is defending is that changes to devolved powers must only be made with the agreement of the Scottish Parliament.
Consent is key here, and I hope that even at this late stage, the UK Government will accept that a partnership based on respect requires compromise on both sides.
We had friends up from Sunderland at the weekend to run the Stirling Marathon.
After the event we arranged to meet for a couple of drinks.
Their train was at 7.19pm to Edinburgh Waverley with a connection at 9pm there back to Newcastle.
We turned up at Stirling train station at 6.50pm a good half an hour early for the train only to find that all the trains were off and a bus service in