Scottish Government will ‘look at every lever’ to avoid benefit cuts – Robison

The Scottish Government will have to “look at every lever” to avoid cutting benefits after the Chancellor’s announcement, Holyrood’s Finance Secretary has said.

Rachel Reeves outlined cuts of almost £5 billion in her spring statement on Wednesday, drawing criticism from charities and opposition parties.

The changes will affect around three million families in the UK on incapacity benefits, while the personal independence payment will be lower for 800,000 claimants.

As a result of the changes, the Scottish Government’s budget is likely to be £900 million lower by the end of the decade – according to the Fraser of Allander Institute.

We’re in the business of keeping people out of poverty, not pushing children particularly into poverty

Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison said on Thursday her Government will do what it can to avoid hitting benefits.

“We have invested in social security, things like the Scottish child payment for example, which is keeping thousands of children out of poverty,” she told BBC Radio Scotland.

“We’re in the business of keeping people out of poverty, not pushing children particularly into poverty.

“So we have made decisions over the years to prioritise the spend on our most vulnerable.

“In terms of going forward, the announcements yesterday are going to have a major impact on our budgets in the coming years and what we will be doing is to look at every lever we can use to avoid having to replicate the decision the UK Labour Government have made.”

She said Scottish ministers are working on plans to reduce the cost of Government and the size of the public sector.

“We believe we will be able to save considerable amounts of money through those programmes, so we will be doing what we can in order to have choices in future years,” she said.

The Scottish Government will have to “do things differently”, the Finance Secretary said, adding: “We will do everything we can to enable us and the government in the future to have choices, because we don’t want to make the choices the Chancellor made yesterday.

“She had other choices she could have made yet she has decided to make these choices on the back of the most vulnerable.”

Speaking on the same programme, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said fiscal responsibility has a “huge cost”.

He added: “When government loses control of the public finances that harms everyone in the country, particularly the most vulnerable, particularly those on the lowest income with the fewest resources.

“So fiscal irresponsibility has a huge cost, that is why for us making sure we have fiscal responsibility, making sure the public finances are stable, is so crucial to what we are doing in Government.

“We know that the best route out of poverty is to get into work.

“A key part of the package we have announced is an extra £1 billion of support for people to get back into employment, to help with their skills and health needs.

“Getting people back into work is a central driver of the package for welfare reform we set out, but it is also important to make sure the safety net is there for people who really need it, for people who can never work, for people who need support.”

He stressed the welfare system has to be “fiscally sustainable”.

He added: “If you look at the cost of incapacity and disability benefits, it has gone up by £20 billion since the pandemic, that is an increase of two-thirds.

“I don’t think anyone would say that the system is sustainable as it is. That is why we’re setting out our plans to reform it.”