The Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) 2024 Regulations: scrutiny report

Recommendation 1: In the Explanatory Note to the draft Regulations the Scottish Government should refer to ‘increases in the amount of’ social security payments rather than referring to an increase in their value.

Recommendation 2: To inform policy following the completion of case transfer, the Scottish Government should consider different measures for up-rating earnings thresholds and consider the merits of making annual up-rating of earnings thresholds a requirement.

Recommendation 3: The Scottish Government should conduct a further Multi Criteria Decision Analysis to inform its approach to the up-rating of social security payments following the completion of case transfer.

Recommendation 4: The Scottish Government should engage stakeholders with a range of expertise (including, but not necessarily limited to, the economy, social security, equality and poverty) to inform decisions on aspects of the next up-rating Multi Criteria Decision Analysis such as criteria, weighting and options to be considered.

Observation: Given the links with the Budget, future potential changes to inflation measures or to up-rating policy should involve equality considerations. SCoSS would welcome being kept informed about the progress of the programme of improvement to equality impact assessments and its relationship with the Budget and up-rating process