Social policy

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) believe the Universal Credit (UC) system must change if the benefit is to work for citizens across Scotland and the rest of the UK. CAS has consistently sought to work with the government to address the problematic aspects of the UC system. In this Budget submission, CAS sets out two policy recommendations that would improve UC for people in-work.

Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) data, including Citizen Alerts (cases from local CAB), have shown clear issues for people who are working and on UC. Particularly, that people are often working and living with an income that is too low to meet the cost of living. Ensuring that UC makes work pay was central to the original policy aims of UC. However, this is not the reality for people who are working, are on UC and are finding themselves accessing CAB for financial advice.

To improve UC for people in-work, CAS calls on the government to announce two key changes in the forthcoming Budget:

1.   Introduce a Work Allowance for all claimants

2.   Reduce the Taper Rate to allow workers to keep more of what they earn

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) welcomes the opportunity to provide evidence to the inquiry. In 2018-19, Scotland’s CAB network provided advice on 311,714 issues related to benefits, representing 44% of all advice given in that year. To further inform our submission, CAS surveyed 65 CAB advisers, representing a wide range of geographical areas, to gain their insight into issues surrounding benefit uptake.

CAS recognises that Universal Credit (UC) may be working well for some people. However, evidence from across the Scottish Citizens Advice network suggests that a significant number of people -who are often already vulnerable and/or marginalised- are experiencing hardship and detriment as a result of having to claim UC.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) believes the Universal Credit (UC) system must change if the benefit is to work for all citizens across Scotland, and the rest of the UK. By ‘work’ CAS means the UC system should not cause financial destitution or debt, should be accessible to everyone and should support people who are in work.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) supports the Scottish Government's ‘safe and secure transition’ approach, but would like to see commitments to a number of short and long-term improvements to Disability Assistance, once it replaces PIP, Attendance Allowance and DLA.

Citizens Advice Scotland has consistently raised a substantial number of issues associated with the rollout of Universal Credit that have caused stress, detriment or hardship to CAB clients. The rising level of in-work poverty during the last five years has also been a concern for CAS. 

The Social Security Charter has the potential to improve the experience of using the social security system for people who need support from it. CAS broadly welcomes the content of the draft Charter. It is essential that these commitments are embedded into the system in practice, and go beyond ‘words on a page’.