Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum

Overview

About the Bill

The Bill makes changes to the Scottish social security system, including:

• allowing the Scottish Government to provide care experience assistance and changing the way rules are made for the Scottish Child Payment;
• changing the processes for making decisions about social security assistance in Scotland;
• changing the processes where people must pay back assistance received by mistake, and providing that in certain situations a person’s representative may need to pay back assistance received by the person by mistake;
• allowing information to be gathered for auditing purposes;
• creating a process for some, or all, of a compensation payment to be paid to the Scottish Government to cover the amount of assistance a person has received for the same accident, injury or illness;
• changing the legal form of the Scottish Commission on Social Security and giving it more duties.

Current Status of the Bill

This Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice on 31 October 2023.

Read and find out more about the Bill: Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill.

Stage 1

The Social Justice and Social Security Committee has been designated as the lead Committee for the Bill.

A separate call for views on the Bill’s policy provisions has been issued by the lead Committee and has been published on this consultation platform.

Financial Memorandum

As with all Bills, the Finance and Public Administration Committee invites written evidence on the estimated financial implications of the Bill as set out in its accompanying Financial Memorandum (FM).

Read the FM published alongside this Bill.

Making a Submission

Before making a submission, please read our Privacy Notice about submitting your views to a Committee. This tells you about how we process personal data.

Please note that in most cases your submission will be published on the Scottish Parliament's website and may be quoted in the Committee's report or in Committee meetings (which are public and broadcast).

Please use the Questionnaire provided for your submission:

1. Did you take part in any consultation exercise preceding the Bill and, if so, did you comment on the financial assumptions made? 

2. If applicable, do you believe your comments on the financial assumptions have been accurately reflected in the FM? 

3. Did you have sufficient time to contribute to the consultation exercise?

4. If the Bill has any financial implications for you or your organisation, do you believe that they have been accurately reflected in the FM? If not, please provide details.

5. Do you consider that the estimated costs and savings set out in the FM are reasonable and accurate? 

6. If applicable, are you content that your organisation can meet any financial costs that it might incur as a result of the Bill? If not, how do you think these costs should be met? 

7. Does the FM accurately reflect the margins of uncertainty associated with the Bill’s estimated costs and with the timescales over which they would be expected to arise?

The deadline to submit your views is: Monday 15 January 2024.

We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language. Due to the time required to process and analyse evidence, late submissions will only be accepted with the agreement of the Committee Clerk.