 The next item of business is a debate on motion 4621 in the name of Ben Macpherson on update on social security benefits. I'd be grateful if members who wish to speak in the debate could press their request to speak buttons now. I call on Ben Macpherson to speak to and move the motion up to 12 minutes, minister. Social security is an important human right. It is an shared investment in building a fairer and better society. None of us know when we might need it or if someone close to us might need it. That is why, collectively, especially in these serious and challenging times, we, Scotland's politicians, must work together to continue to successfully deliver and develop our devolved social security system, based on our shared principles of dignity, fairness and respect. Today, I wish to update Parliament on the progress that we have made, particularly during the pandemic, and then how we build on the strong foundation to safely and securely deliver the remaining devolved benefits. Today's debate is a chance for us to reflect on the remarkable progress that has been made since this Parliament unanimously passed the Social Security Act 2018, and it is a chance to look forward to what further change and assistance this Scottish Government will deliver for the people that we serve. We have used, are using and will continue to use, our devolved powers proactively, purposefully and passionately to strengthen and develop our still fairly new public service and to deliver significant extra financial support to people in our communities who need it most. The Scottish Government has now introduced 12 benefits, seven of which are brand new forms of support, only available in Scotland. In this financial year, through record investment of £3.9 billion in benefit expenditure, we will be providing support to over 1 million people. We have chosen to invest more than the money being transferred to us by the UK Government by around £360 million this financial year. A decision that we have taken as a Government on how we allocate our limited resources and use our limited powers to introduce new forms of support, to tackle child poverty, promote equality and mitigate pressures on the cost of living. We are taking a range of actions. For example, by the end of 2022, we will extend the Scottish child payment to under-16s and increase it to £25 per week per child. By that point, around 430,000 children living in low-income households could be eligible, a fourfold increase on the 104,000 children that we are already helping. I will give way to Pam Duncan-Glancy. I thank the minister for taking this intervention. We have had various briefings come in ahead of this debate, as we all know, and all of them have pointed to the fact that children are still living in poverty today. They cannot wait until the end of the year, and particularly children on bridging payments. Will the Government commit to doubling the bridging payments? We have answered Pam Duncan-Glancy on this point several times. As she knows, the reason that we cannot extend the Scottish child payment until the end of this year is because we have to go through a process with the DWP to access the data and implement the change systematically. We have provided bridging payments in the meantime in order to provide that extra assistance, and that is welcomed by families across Scotland. As is our package of five family payments for low-income families, it is worth over £10,000 by the time a family's first child turns six and £9,700 for subsequent children. That compares to less than £1,800 for an eligible family's first child in England in Wales. That is the difference of more than £8,200 for every eligible child born in Scotland, proof that we are delivering for the households who need it most using our powers. We also reacted to the cost of living crisis by increasing eight Scottish benefits by six per cent closer to the rate of inflation instead of previous plans of 3.1 per cent in the CPI. What's more, we both delivered and introduced several of those new benefits through the pandemic, including the Scottish child payment and our complex disability benefits, which Audit Scotland last week said, and I quote, was a significant achievement. I will, from Miles Briggs. Miles Briggs. It's beautiful for the minister for taking this intervention. Audit Scotland also stated that the implementation costs regarding new devolved benefits are not routinely reported on in the public domain. Inevitably, I quote what they say, it makes it difficult for those scrutinising roles to track costs over time. What assessment has the minister made of those comments? Minister, we have welcomed all the recommendations in the Audit Scotland report and will be working to implement those recommendations and work with the auditor as we move forward, as we have done through the process. Naturally, just with regard to progress during the pandemic, our delivery partners at the Department of Work and Pensions also had to re-prioritise their programme of work. We are now working with them to plan our timetable for delivery of the remaining devolved benefits and transferring around 700,000 cases from the DWP to Social Security Scotland. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those involved in the delivery of our devolved Social Security benefits. All my officials in the Scottish Government, UK ministers and civil servants who have been involved, everyone at Social Security Scotland, our experience panels, SCOS, Dacbig and every stakeholder and individual who has contributed to the development of our 12 benefits and those that we are preparing to introduce. On that note, let me now move to a new benefit that will directly support around 400,000 low-income households with their energy costs. Being in winter 2022-23, we will introduce our low-income winter heating assistance. That new benefit will replace the DWP's cold weather payments and will guarantee an annual £50 payment to around 400,000 low-income households each winter, an investment of around £20 million a year. The current £25 cold weather payment is only paid if the weather gets cold enough and for a sustained period of time. In contrast, our replacement winter heating benefit will be a guaranteed £50 payment, ensuring that it is targeted, stable, reliable financial support to those who need it most. It will deliver certainty and no longer be tied to temperatures recorded at weather stations, which are often miles from people's homes. It represents an investment of around £20 million a year. Since 2014-15, there have only been two years when spending on cold weather payments in Scotland has been above £20 million, including only £325,000 to just 11,000 households in the winter that we have just had. Therefore, there is no doubt that this new Scottish benefit will be a huge help to people in the coming winter and another way that this Government is supporting people and mitigating against the cost of living crisis. The next benefit that we will be introducing is Scottish Carers Assistance, a replacement for carers allowance. I am pleased to announce today that we will begin to roll out Scottish Carers Assistance by the end of 2023, with full national introduction in spring 2024. The final dates will be agreed following our on-going work with the UK Government. This is a key milestone for our new benefit. Our consultation on Scottish Carers Assistance and our plans for future improvements to increase the support that is available to carers has just ended. Those plans include an additional payment for those caring for more than one disabled person and proposals to remove full-time education restrictions and increase the earnings limit so carers can earn more and still get financial support. We will consider the responses to the consultation and later this year we will confirm the improvements that we will make and when we will be able to make them. In the meantime, we will continue to pay the carers allowance supplement, real, tangible to support to around 90,000 carers. We have now delivered £188 million of carers allowance supplement support since it was introduced in 2018, including two additional payments in 2020 and 2021 in response to the pandemic. We are also delivering significant changes this year as well with our new disability benefits. After successfully rolling it out last winter, child disability payment has already helped an estimated 3,000 children. Just a few months ago, I was proud that we successfully introduced adult disability payment, our replacement for the UK personal independence payment. On 21 March, we launched it in three council areas and it will be phased in across 10 more areas in the coming months that had a full national introduction at the end of August. Adult disability payment is delivering significant improvements from never using the private sector to carry out health assessments to providing an independent advocacy service and short-term assistance if people are challenging a review decision. As further evidence of our human rights-based approach in action, we have introduced indefinite awards for people on the highest level of adult disability payment, whose needs are unlikely to change, providing the most severely disabled people with long-term financial security. We have moved away from the DWP's definition of terminal illness to one based on clinical judgment instead of life expectancy. Importantly, benefit applications from people with terminal illness will be fast-tracked and paid at the maximum rate. Adult disability payment is without doubt the most complex benefit that we have introduced. The seamless, safe and secure transfer of hundreds of thousands of people's payments from the DWP is not a simple administrative process. We will start to move personal independence payment awards from the middle of next month and working-age disability living allowance awards from the end of August, in cases when individuals would otherwise need to undergo an assessment or reassessment with the DWP. People in Scotland who are having their cases transferred do not need to do anything. We will do it and we will do it seamlessly and we will keep them informed through the process. There is a lot more I could say about the remarkable progress we have made since the Social Security Act was passed just four years ago. In that time, we have created a new public service for Scotland, delivered new and replacement benefits and positively impacted on thousands of lives. I look forward this afternoon to hearing from colleagues about how together we can make an even bigger difference. We have ambitions to help more people as we use our powers to create a modern, future-proof social security system, a system that can serve the people of Scotland well and effectively for decades to come, and one that embodies one of the four key words on that mace before us today—compassion. To do that, we will have to be ambitious but also appropriately realistic. We will have to move forward purposefully but also be responsible. We will have to put people first and not party politics. We will need to work together to encourage benefit take-up and remove stigma that is, unfortunately, built up in previous years around social security. Presiding Officer, the months and years ahead are arguably the most significant for the new system that we have created and for those of us who serve in communities across Scotland. In those serious times, I encourage my fellow MSPs to play their part in supporting our constituents to access any support that is available that they are entitled to and for colleagues to be constructive in the next really important phase of delivering social security benefits. Members may wish to know that we have some time available to give back for any interventions, and I now call on Miles Briggs to speak to and move amendment 4621.1. Following the sweeping devolution delivered in the 2016 Scotland Act, this Parliament does indeed now have unprecedented powers and influence over social security here in Scotland. It goes to the heart of the devolution settlement following the 2014 independence referendum, in which the Parliament is now responsible for a greater number of decisions that we take for the people of Scotland. Not only is the Scottish Government of the day able to top up UK-wide reserve benefits, it also has full control over 11 benefits that we previously administered by the UK Government, including child disability payments. If the pandemic has demonstrated anything, it is the benefits of the broad shoulders of the UK that has helped to protect and support families to get through the pandemic from the furlough scheme to the unprecedented support that has been provided to families and businesses the length and breadth of the UK. We saw more of that support today from the Chancellor's statement as well. I would like to begin today's debate with where I do agree with the Government. It was the final point that the minister made, and that was with regard to the implementation of a clinically determined definition of terminal illness and the fast-tracking of those applications for support. I really do believe that it is a welcome step forward, and I am very much welcome, including the definition of indefinite awards for the Scottish disability assistance. That is something that many of us have campaigned for across this Parliament, including yourself, Presiding Officer. I think that it is a welcome day that we have seen that finally taken forward. Despite the SNP-Green Government's motion, it has to be said that the establishment and transition to date of Social Security Scotland has not been all plain sailing. We are acutely aware of how ministers have to hand back administrative powers, for example, over the severe disability allowance to the DWP. Moreover, despite recent welcome progress, the transition has been far too slow. It is worth reflecting that this has been nearly now a decade after ministers received those powers before we will see the case transfer from the DWP to Social Security Scotland. I would be interested if Mr Briggs, from a practical, realistic position, could give any suggestion of how we could have gone quicker. We have introduced new benefits such as the Scottish child payment that the Conservatives welcomed and campaigned to be doubled in the last election. It is very easy to say that things should have gone quicker, but how would you have done it quicker? Miles Briggs. That is about holding government to account. The specific promise made by ministers was that the new system would be fully in place before the 2021 election. Indeed, Audit Scotland only last week warned that the current timescales that we are seeing are challenging regarding the delivery of those new benefits as well. As I have stated in previous debates in the chamber, it is in all our interest to see Social Security Scotland succeed. We all want to see that, but the organisation must deliver efficiency and cost-effective assessments and payments, and that is something that all of us will continue to hold the Government to account on. As is the case of any Government body or quango, the Scottish people rightly expect, minister, that those resources will be managed effectively and efficiently to deliver value for money. As the Social Justice and Social Security Committee has recently heard, projections around spend on devolved benefits are now estimated to see a gap of at least three quarters of a billion pounds by the end of this Parliament. As my colleague Jeremy Balfour has previously outlined, SNP Green ministers also have not outlined where we are seeing costs around rebranding, for example around PIP, which is, obstentially, just a repeat of the same system. Ministers have not said any changes which will be made to this, and that is something that the committee and members across the Parliament want to see a change very briefly. I would just highlight to Mr Briggs that he has just pointed out a difference in the definition of terminal illness, and I stated a difference in terms of indefinite awards in my opening remarks, as well as the way that people will access benefits. Let's be serious here. Miles Briggs specifically around criteria around PIP and what seems to be a rebranding of that payment. We need to see where those changes will be. At committee, the minister has not outlined any of those, either. We also know that the current Social Security Scotland costs of delivering benefits stands around 10 per cent of total resources compared to 6 per cent of the DWP. Yes, it is a new organisation, but last year alone Social Security Scotland saw an overspend cost of around £44 million. I know that this Parliament and certainly members on the committees who are looking at this would like further clarity from the Government over where the projected expenditure in the future will be controlled and what plans there are to plug some of those funding gaps. It is concerning that the costs of setting up Social Security Scotland have more than tripled what SNP ministers estimated they would cost, and that is something that I think we still haven't heard clear answers from. Today's debate is an important opportunity to highlight the need for more transparency from ministers. I asked him with regards to Audit Scotland's question, and he said that he would like to ask Miles Briggs. Did he agree with the UK Government's decision to cut the £20 universal credit uplift? That is not the point that we are debating today. In terms of the additional resources that were provided at the start of the pandemic, I think that that was very welcome. However, the things that we are responsible for, Mr Fairlie, we need to concentrate on. Certainly, the £44 million overspend is something that we should be able to discuss and look at. Audit Scotland is saying quite clearly that the Scottish Government is making it difficult for scrutiny and for those of us who are carrying that scrutiny to track the costs over time. The minister says that he accepts all of Audit Scotland's recommendations. I welcome that fact and hope that we will be seeing action on that very soon. Due to this lack of transparency, Audit Scotland is urging the Scottish Government to make these important changes now, including publishing a new programme around the business case, so that Scots can see exactly how the money is being spent. The future financial sustainability of our welfare system is vitally important, and the additional costs and duplications of the system need to be fully considered as we move forward. In the spirit of the 2016 Scotland Act, Scotland should be able to have a unique and distinctive approach to social security. We all agree with that. From elsewhere in the UK, Scottish Conservatives have outlined our priorities of reform that we want to see. I hope that the minister will engage on that, including the extension of bereavement support for carers and a new top-up benefit for veterans. That is something that the minister has acknowledged in committee, and I hope that that is something that we will also see going forward. However, there are serious budget concerns, and the Scottish Government needs to be clearer on its long-term vision for social security Scotland and the spend that we will see, and lay out the practical steps that it will make to make sure that the body will be more transparent and accessible to the public. I move the amendment in my name. Thank you. I now call on Pam Duncan-Glancy to speak to and move amendment 4621.2. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I move the amendment in my name. The devolution of social security was a key moment. It was a chance to be radical, to create a new system and remove the most undignified and unjust policies of the past. However, the SNP has failed to meet that moment. It had warm words, but as is too often the case, it has failed to turn them into action. It has failed to deliver on promises, even when those promises have been their flagship policies. Six years on from passing the Social Security Act, the Scottish Government is still regularly announcing delays, opting to leave powers in the hands of the Tories and handing the DWP over a third of its budget in the process, I will. I thank Pam Duncan-Glancy for taking the intervention. I would just pose the same question to Pam Duncan-Glancy as I pose to Miles Briggs. It is very easy to say that things should have gone faster and we want to move quicker. Everyone wants to move quicker in this Parliament, but how do we do that? I cannot see looking back on the trajectory from 2018 to now with the circumstances that we faced, how that could have been done any quicker considering we introduced new benefits such as the Scottish child payment, which I know Pam Duncan-Glancy really strongly supports. I thank the minister for that intervention and I do strongly support the Scottish child payment. There are a number of things that could be done much more quickly, but one of the most important things is that we should have been in a position—the Government should have been in a position—to ask the UK Government for the information that it needed well ahead of announcing policy on it. When the UK minister came to committee and we asked the UK minister why the data was not available from the DWP, particularly for Scottish child payment, the minister said that the Scottish Government had not asked them for it in advance. I would strongly urge the Scottish Government to make sure that it is engaging as early as possible with the public but also with the UK Government on matters such as that, I will. I think that the point that the minister was making was that somehow we should have asked their permission in advance of increases to Scottish child payment. I do not think that that is right and they had a lot of leading time from the first announcement of Scottish child payment, but surely Pam Duncan-Glancy, who calls for things to be changed and increased all the time, would recognise that the decisions about the level should lie with us, but the DWP and the minister had plenty of leading time in order to get the data issues resolved. The issue was a disagreement on how the data issues should be resolved. I thank the cabinet secretary for that intervention. If the cabinet secretary wants to look over the official record of the committee, the cabinet secretary will see that he said specifically that he had not been given enough notice ahead of policy changes, which is why it is important, at this point, to say that if there is any intended policy change around the adult disability payment review, that information is going to be absolutely key as soon as possible, because people need to know that there are the systems in place to deliver the changes that they so desperately need and want. Meanwhile, all of this is happening, and poverty is rife. Debt is racking up and people are struggling to make ends meet. The key workers for the pandemic, those who put their lives on the line to protect ours in roles with high exposure to Covid, social care and education, predominantly were women. With the powers that we have here, we could have seen more support for them, recognising the role that they played, including us unpaid carers stepping in when the state pulled out. Instead, the uplift to the carers supplement was cut. Then there are disabled people, many of whom are living in poverty in Scotland. The Scottish Government is now finally in the process of rolling out the adult disability payment, but all that is done is to think about the edges of it and to welcome the improvements to the application. However, let us be honest, that was not a high bar. The SNP could have been making real changes by removing the 20-metre rule and the 50 per cent rule in recognition of the fact that those arbitrary numbers allow for no recognition of fluctuating conditions, including long Covid and MS, but they have not. They have said that they must first prioritise safe and secure transfer. I will get my time back please, Presiding Officer. You can indeed, minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thanks again to Pam Duncan Glancy. I would just ask Pam Duncan Glancy, is Pam Duncan Glancy therefore suggesting that we should have a two-tier system as we undertake case transfer, because that would be the reality if we made changes to eligibility criteria until we have undertaken case transfer. Pam Duncan Glancy, that is in fact not what I am suggesting, although, as we heard in committee this morning, there will be a two-tier system, particularly for the 38,000 people who are currently on DLA. I am going to be moving to adult disability payment. It is possible, where there is the will, for the Government to find solutions to those problems. What matters more than anything else is that people are not facing the DWP systems that are not giving them adequate amounts of money to live on and that are ruling people out of getting access to support on arbitrary figures such as 50 per cent rules and 20-metre rules. The sooner we can do away with that in Scotland, the better. At this rate, substantial changes around eligibility and adequacy in adult disability payment will not be in place in this Parliament, despite both financial and legal competence being entirely devolved for years. It is a system that does not meet the needs of children either. Child poverty still remains at shamefully high levels. I engage with third sector organisations, as I know the cabinet secretary and minister does, and they have been sharing stories with us about families sharing blankets, children sharing the free school meals. People are coming together to support each other while Governments are failing to step in. The Aberlour told the Social Justice and Social Security Committee last week that it is not relative child poverty that they are seeing, it is absolute child poverty, complete destitution. The child poverty delivery plan concluded that, with a fair wind and a good day, we could scrape through the relative poverty target next year, and I hope that we do. However, it is also admitted that, even with that same optimistic outlook, the absolute child poverty target for 2324 will be missed and 16 per cent of children will still remain in destitution. The Scottish child payment is welcome, as I have said before, but at its current rate and in its current unfinished state, it is not doing enough. Three out of four children living in poverty are not receiving the money that they should be getting on it. The clumsiness of the roll-out is costing the poorest children upwards of £5 million a week. The Government blamed the DWP, but, as I said earlier, the committee has heard that it has not asked for the information quick enough. The SNP made yet another headline-grabbing announcement, but they have not had the plans to back it up. People deserve and expect better than this. Then, of course, there are bills. A quarter of people in Scotland are in fuel poverty, and, after Tuesday's announcements, it is only going to get worse. The reality is that neither Government is doing enough to address it. In fact, on fuel poverty, we see another example of the Government failing to live up to the rhetoric. In the fuel strategy, it rightly recognised that disabled people of all ages have a higher cost to living as a result of fuel costs, yet, when they had the chance to extend child winter heating allowance to all disabled people, regardless of age, they did not. They had the power to use it, but they did not. Fuel poverty is already affecting 690,000 households in Scotland, and that number is going to increase. People who are already struggling are finding that they cannot make ends meet and pay their bills. 218,000 of those people are households with older people in them. That is why we proposed fully-costed plans that would have given people on pension credit £400 to mitigate some of their ises and energy bills. We would have given the same to people on carers learning supplement, child winter heating assistance and people on council tax reduction, and put the rest to the welfare fund so that people could get the help that they need to. The Tory Government and Westminster have always let us down on that, but here in Scotland, where we should be using our powers, the SNP has failed to. It is time to stop messing about, get the staff needed in place, sort the IT, move pavements over at pace and deliver the promised new radical social security system that people in Scotland so desperately need. I know that the minister probably finds me rather curmudgeonly on occasion and a tad critical of the Government's management of its responsibilities, because I am usually right. The Government's record is pretty terrible in so many areas, but I plan to tread new territory this afternoon and complement those who are responsible for the progress so far in Social Security Scotland. Do not get too carried away. It will be a limited, Jim Fairlie. It is not going to go too far, but to those in Dundee and elsewhere who have been working throughout this last period, it is a big programme. It was delayed, no doubt, but it is going to be recognised as progress. I think that ministers deserve credit as well. Ben Macpherson is an open and approachable minister. He is focused on his work and dedicated to it, so there is no doubt about that. In fact, Jeane Freeman, for setting up the implementation plan at the beginning, deserves some credit as well. That is enough for that. I am coming out in a rash now. It is important to recognise that there are warnings in this Audit Scotland report. There is still a huge amount to be done. If you look at just the adult disability payment, something that we were discussing yesterday, it has gone from just a few thousand just now, 20,000 up to almost half a million in just five years. We have only just started on the adult disability payment, so we need to keep our feet on the ground. There is also the extension to the child payment to 200,000 older children, the six to 15 range by the end of this year. That is a big step as well. We know that there were problems with the child disability payment roll-out. We knew that there were issues with that, and it is not unreasonable. The pandemic did create some of the issues, but it just shows that the system is not as robust as perhaps the minister would like to think. The people who are dependent on those payments—the adult disability payment, but also the child payment—need the money. They need it on time. They are cutting right to the edge every single month. They run out of money before the end of the week. They need the money without delays, so there is no slack in that. We need to make this work absolutely, because we know the consequences that it has for people's lives if we do not get this right. I asked the minister about how confident he was yesterday of delivering this. How confident was he of the timetable? He talked about the system quite readily. Did he express any confidence? Perhaps he can clear that up now. Thank you, Mr Rennie, for giving way. I am glad to have the second opportunity to just emphasise that I am confident of the robust processes in which recruitment, training and proper investment into our IT systems has taken place so far, and that is taking place as we speak and will be as we roll out the different phases of adult disability payment and crucially undertake case transfer. He is right to raise these serious points, and I am very confident that we will do this right and get people their money on time and when they expect it. We will hold him to account for that, the minister, because it is important. It is not just me who will hold him to account, all the people, the children and those with disabilities will hold him to account to make sure that that is met, so I hope that he is right. There needs to be a focus on cost too. Miles Briggs was right about that. The cost of the benefits is an additional £760 million to Audit Scotland, and the implementation costs have doubled since 2017. I know that the criteria has changed and there is a different scope, but nevertheless it is quite an increase from what was originally planned. I understand the purpose of having the agile system, which is a focus on the needs of the user. I understand the needs for that, but it comes with costs to the system. We need to recognise that money is not unlimited, and we need to make sure that we have a system in balance. I would like to know from the minister that perhaps we need to sum it up how he is going to keep control of those costs. We have heard more today from the minister, but we need the full details of the re-planning of several benefits that are having to be rescheduled—the pension age disability payment, the various carers payments and the employment injury assistance. All of that needs to be set out in detail because people are dependent on those benefits as well. The cost of living crisis has to be at the centre of everything that we think about in this Parliament. It is going to plunge huge numbers of people into poverty, and we have met many people who are experiencing that already, and it is only going to get worse. Today's package from the chancellor will help to some degree, but we must be ready to do more, and this Parliament must do more as well. The child poverty action group is calling for a number of steps, including the doubling of the bridging payments for the Scottish child payment. I hope that the minister will address that, too, and make sure that there is a commitment, because those children are desperate for that money right now. There are thousands of carers who just get nowhere near any carers support, and that needs to be addressed before long—thousands and thousands of people who care for loved ones get no recognition for that. When I asked our representatives on the Smith commission, Tavish Scott and Michael Moore, to make the case back in 2015 for the transfer of significant welfare powers, I did so because I believed that the non-universal credit items should largely be devolved. I wanted greater synergy with the work that the Parliament does. I thought that it was a substantial transfer of powers, but it was also reasonable. It created a big, multi-billion-pound budget. It was not all what the SNP wanted, but it was significant. A few months earlier, if we cast our mind back, the SNP was claiming that we were going to deliver independence within 16 months. Seven years later, on the transfer of the benefits, and we are not even near the end of it—I am actually coming to my conclusion—we are not anywhere near the full delivery. I understand what the minister says about timing. Those things do take time to implement, but we were promised this grand new welfare system and benefit system. We were promised independence to be delivered in 16 months, years later. I think that that should be a sobering lesson for the SNP, but I just want to conclude, Presiding Officer. We have tried to work constructively with the Government throughout this. We support dignity, fairness and respect. We think that when we are forging a new welfare system, the country is to come together to do its best to make sure that it works effectively. We will continue with that approach, as I hope I have showed the minister today that we are determined to do. Thanks very much. Thank you. We move to the open debate, and I call Eleanor Whitham to be followed by Alexander Stewart. I rise today to support the Scottish Government's motion. It is extremely important that we take a moment to reflect on the fact that, in four short years, including in the face of a pandemic when priorities rightly shifted, since the act was passed in 2018, our Government has taken on the major feat of disentangling a complex benefit system. This is a system that is so complex that the UK Chancellor advised only a fortnight ago that computers said no to upgrading benefits more than once a year, as the anti-creative system meant that it was simply an insurmountable obstacle to do it in any other way. Although he has been dragged kicking and screaming today to agree an inflationary uplift to benefits, it will not happen until surprise surprise next year. Not only have we disentangled a complex onerous system that had bits of paper warehoused all across the UK, we now find ourselves in a position where our new social security Scotland agency is delivering 12 benefits of which seven are entirely new and only available in Scotland. A feat that Audit Scotland rightly describes as a significant achievement in challenging circumstances. Those new Scottish only payments, including the game changing Scottish health payment, are payments that third sector partners across the rest of the UK are desperate to see replicated in their own countries, but sadly the political well at UK level is more interested in capping benefits rather than investing in their people, while we in this place have a Government that chooses to mitigate the hated benefit cap that plunges predominantly women and children into abject poverty. Ideological austerity created welfare warfare that also saw women being told that a third child will only be supported if they were conceived during rape. That is also a system that plunged 400,000 children UK-wide into poverty overnight by removing the £20 universal credit uplift. Shameful. I wonder if any on the Tory benches here today have made representation to their UK Government colleagues to reverse those callers' welfare cuts, which analysis show would lift an estimated 70,000 people in Scotland, including 30,000 children, out of poverty by 2024. Contrast that with our approach in this place, which decided our agency was to develop with fairness, dignity and respect at its heart, and core principles that do include seeing social security as an investment in the people of Scotland and as a human right that is essential to the realisation of other human rights and which will contribute to the reduction of poverty across our country. Right back at the beginning of the creation of this first new public service to be created since devolution, I remember as part of my work as the cause of community wellbeing sports person being moved to the point of tears when hearing from those involved in the experience panels about how much trauma a brown envelope through the door invoked. As someone who was previously in receipt of said brown envelopes and who also supported many folk to navigate the often complex and cruel world that sees brown envelopes become the stuff of nightmares, I was relieved to see this level of engagement with lived experience shaped the way in which our new agency operates. That is after all, I will. I will remember slightly surprised that we have got such a brand new system that so early on that 2,000 people receiving Scottish child disability had to wait four days, a whole weekend, without receiving our money. Do you think that the system really is working that well? I think that we are always going to see some hiccups, but I would just like to point out to the member that we are how many years down the line in terms of the rollout of PIP and we are still 13 years in and it is still not rolled out fully. That is why we have people on DLA and legacy benefits and as my colleagues are saying from their positions we also have a five week cruel wait to get your first payment of universal credit. That is after all, our social security agency built for all of us and it is imperative that we look, that we took the time and the effort to ensure that we did not replicate nor bake in the shortcomings and the inequity of the UK system. It is not also incumbent upon all of us to work hard to make sure that we maximise benefit uptake. We want to figure out how do we get past those practical solutions of data sharing to ensure that families get everything that they are entitled to and I repeat the call from the minister. Right across those chambers please get it out on your social media channels and make sure that everybody knows what they are entitled to. As convener of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, I recently travelled to Dundee to Social Security Scotland with my committee colleague Emma Roddick to hear first hand about how the transfer of adult disability payment was progressing. I was struck by how impassioned the staff were and how they appreciated the time that was afforded to them with the phased roll-out that enables them to be fleet of foot and face of challenges and respond accordingly. They spoke about culture and practice developing that gives me the confidence that our guiding principles are playing out in real time. That was confirmed by the recent study that 90 per cent of Scotland customers rated the service as good or very good. The thing that resonated most with me that day is the application form for ADP itself. That is not tinkering around the edges. It could not be further removed from the application form for personal independence payment. It is a form that has been crafted with lived and worked experience in mind and dignity at its heart. Both my colleague Emma and Roddick and I were emotional as we both know only too well the positive impact it will have on those of us in Scotland who find ourselves eligible for such payment. In definite awards, no-dehumanising private sector assessments also signal a brand new approach. Despite the ludicrous labour assertion that we are doing nothing with our powers, eligible families in Scotland will receive more than £10,000 by the time their first child turns six and £9,700 for subsequent children. Contrast this, as the minister said, with only £1,800 in England and Wales and only £1,300 for subsequent children. Doing this with one hand tied behind our back, just imagine what we could do with all the powers of a normal, every day independent country. It seems that every time Scotland's social security benefits are debated in this chamber, the Scottish Government is able to report a small amount of progress on the issue, but that is never the amount of progress that it should be reporting. Despite the progress that we have seen and I welcome what has happened over the last year, it remains the case that this Government will not have finished taking control of all devolved benefits until nearly a decade after the first received some of those powers. Just for context, I wonder if he wishes to reflect on the roll-out of universal credit, which was legislated for in 2012 and is still being rolled out. I think that let's be reasonable here. I thank the minister for the intervention, but you cannot mix and match the process, and you are trying to do that today. Over the period, we have seen the estimated cost of social security more than triple compared to the original estimates. Given that it is disappointing, though perhaps not surprising, to read the self-congratulatory motion from the Scottish Government today, which estimates and ignores many of the delays that have taken place since the act back in 2016. That follows last week's claim that the Government were being ambitious with the delivery timeline for those benefits. To say that claim is stretching the facts is a little bit to say the least, Presiding Officer. As we have already heard today, Audit Scotland reported on the Scottish Government's progress in delivering devolved benefits, which was helpful and highlighted that there were some key developments over recent years. There have been some key developments, but there have not been enough. For example, the report highlights that the potential benefits that we will see from the Scottish child payment roll-out of which it is speeding and forward have been so many delays with that process. It is welcome to see that we are preparing for the future, for example, for the Scottish child payment, as well as under way, and we report the highlights meeting the proposed timescales. However, those are going to be extremely challenging. Extremely challenging is what the report suggests because of the sharing of data issues. I would like to make some more progress. I hope to continue engagement between the Social Security Scotland and the DWP, because it is vitally important that there is continued support between both of them and that they are on track to ensure that there are no further delays in the roll-out, because with no delays it will be game changing. We acknowledge that. We want to see those benefits delivered. We all want to see individuals receiving that benefit, but it could be going faster. We have already talked about issues in IT and roll-out. All that comes into the equation. Audit Scotland's report talks about the launch of the child disability payment and the phase roll-out of the adult disability payment. The launch of those benefits might have taken far longer than it originally hoped, but now it is estimated that ensuring that we ensure that the transfer of the 300,000 people who are currently in receipt of PIP goes smoothly. One disappointing feature of the adult disability payment has been to highlight that previously we talked about that that will not take place and that the criteria will not change until at least 2025. The Scottish Conservatives are clear that the devolution of powers should have meant that, beginning of the disability approach to social security, one takes the opportunity was much more flexible in ensuring that those powers were brought forward. The decision to keep the eligibility criteria of PIP and DAP at the same, so far long as hardly has said, is that the Government makes sure that those powers are there. I have also raised concerns previously about the total removal of the personal assessment as the application of DAP. While that decision might have been notable intentions behind it, it remains the case that it is unintended consequences. There will be unintended consequences because of that. Certain individuals may struggle to provide sufficient data to support their application through the medical data, along with the consequences that there are risks and there may well be the inflammation going forward. I hope that the potential PIP falls, such as those are considered in the case of transfer from PIP, and that continues in the coming years. It is much more to be done in order to fully capitalise on Scotland's devolved social security powers, but one group that we have talked about in the past is carers. The pandemic has presented the opportunity to view the needs of carers in a new light and to consider the best way that we can support them. Those benches have talked about for long advocated the policies to ensure that carers allowance for those for up to six months after bereavement, and we will continue to make that case for further support for carers going forward. The introduction of the carers allowance support, for example, on how we devolve powers, can be used to help carers. I hope that the Government uses the powers that it has to support that in conclusion. Social security in Scotland is finally starting to approach a stage that should be and that we want to see it progress. In the years to come, we now need to see far less delay and far much more ambition that the Government talks about. This Parliament has received significant social security powers and we welcome that fact, but it is now up to this Government to do more, to step up and deliver the massive potential that those powers will bring to support individuals the length and breadth of Scotland to secure their prosperity for the future. I support the amendment in Miles Briggs' name. I start my contribution to today's debate by highlighting my disgust at the hostile and cruel welfare system that is overseen by the Tories at Westminster. It is a treatment of working people, the lack of compassion in helping those who are most in need and their intrusive and discriminatory assessments are representative of a Government not fit for office, a Government not fit to represent the people of this country. I must say that the Scottish Conservatives, too, have responsibility for the actions of the UK Government in relation to welfare and social security, the lack of opposition to it and, in some cases, involvement in a Government that has overseen such brutal cuts to social security is shameful. However, like colleagues have done already, I must stress that we must work across this Parliament to tackle the impacts of the cost of living crisis, to ensure that more people are not forced into poverty and to alleviate the pressures facing working families on a daily basis. It is welcome that, after significant pressure from the Labour Party that the SNP finally showed some political will to introduce a windfall tax, and it is also interesting again after Labour pressure that a range of measures have been announced by the Treasury today to tackle the cost of living crisis after weeks of indecision and inaction. However, we must not ignore the fact, Presiding Officer, that those measures will come too late for many and will not be enough for the others. Indeed, Presiding Officer, we should also not ignore the fact that this is a powerful Parliament. It has the power to deliver a Scottish child payment and it is in the power of this Government to increase this further still by April next year. Yet it remains clear that, despite increases in recent years, too many families eligible for the payment are not yet receiving it. I say to the Minister that experts must be listened to if the Scottish Government does not increase the speed at which eligible families are in receipt of the Scottish child payment, targets will be missed and more children will grow up in poverty. I thank the member for taking in an intervention. Would Carol Mocken appreciate the fact that we know about 77 per cent or maybe even further than that now of eligible children who are in receipt of the Scottish child payment just now? However, I also would like to ask if the member could explain if Labour has undertaken the analysis that if we further increase the Scottish child payment at some point in time, the DWP is going to have a knock-on effect to eligibility to universal credit, and that is absolutely a worrying factor for families across the country. I thank the member. I think that I have shown that I do support measures that the Scottish Government has taken, but we know that in actual fact it is just of the one in four children that we know about that the child payment has helped. We need to do more to make sure that we are reaching all of the children living in poverty. Child poverty is one of the biggest challenges we face as a society with more than one in four children living in poverty. Although I accept that there is additional support for children and their families is welcome, as I have said, I welcome the current incases, but that is not a time for self-congratulatory motions that seem to be coming more and more from the Scottish Government. That is how it feels. In fact, it is a time to keep moving forward, to keep making progress, to be more radical and to end child poverty. That has to be the aim of this Parliament and it is our job in opposition to hold the Government to account on that. That is what my job is and that is why I speak to those motions. She is making a very powerful speech in all credit to her for the sentiments that she expressed at the beginning. However, one concern for me is that, consistently in this Parliament, people fail to appreciate or acknowledge the macroeconomic powers that reside at Westminster, where there is a clear correlation between the ability to borrow in the open markets, for example, and then use that to fund those kind of improvements. Would she reflect on that? Therefore, if she agrees with me, what powers would she like to see directly in the control of this Parliament and will she be asking Westminster for them? I thank the member for her intervention. I do not want to get into that particular point of this. What I want to say is that, in my view, this Scottish Parliament is actually a powerful Parliament and, while we are debating those points, we should be doing everything that it has to move things forward, particularly for child poverty. We know what changes we can make if we act now, so I want to talk in this Parliament about what we can do. I have repeatedly said that. My colleague, Duncan Clancy, has also said that what we want the Scottish Government to do is what it can do and with pace. That would be what we would like to see. I want to talk a little bit about carers allowing supplement uplift and the delivery of the Scottish carers assistant payment. The pandemic has only increased the difficulties for carers and it is clear that we need to move forward with the benefit that we know can be put in place. I ask the Scottish Minister to do some feedback on what he intends to do for carers support, because we know that carers are struggling at this time. I know that I am limited for time, so I am going to move on. We acknowledge that the Government has said that the current carers allowance links closely to universal credit and income support payments. As such, I understand that the introduction of the Scottish carers assessment payment will take time, but it is only right that, where possible, protection remains in place to support carers through this incredibly difficult and stressful time. As I say, I would hope that you could make some remarks about this so that we can offer support to carers. I will be the first person to stand up and oppose the Tory UK Government cuts to benefit and social security, but it is clear that, in Scotland, we can and we must do more. My party will call out any hypocrisy from the Scottish Government, and we will all be relentless in our calls for it to do more and more radically to get that step further and to put in place protections for the most vulnerable in our society. I repeat that this is not a time for the Scottish Government to pat itself on the back. It is a time to get out of the blocks, get on the job and look to making sure that we eradicate child poverty in Scotland, that we protect unpaid carers when we can and that we enhance the lives of some of the most invulnerable in our community. There is one clear aspect of consensus in this afternoon's debate on the update on the delivery of social security benefits in Scotland. We all agree that social security is a human right and an investment in people. That is the only part of the Government motion that has not been deleted by Opposition parties. There is actually a principle right at the heart of this where we can all agree on, and we should always strive to find that consensus where we can. There is another key aspect of the Scottish Government motion where I think we can find consensus, and that is to indicate a priority set by the Scottish Government, because in the motion of the Scottish Government's record investment of £3.9 billion in benefit expenditure in 2022 to 2023, and it acknowledges. The Conservatives acknowledge that as well, it is £360 million above that that is received by the UK Government. That provides meaningful social security support to over one million people, including low-income families and households, disabled people and carers. That is testament to the priority of the Scottish Government and the consensus within this Parliament. A mainly bloc grant Parliament is a fundamental indicator of the priorities that our Scottish Government sets seeking to protect the most vulnerable in society. We have consensus, and it is clear to see where that expenditure is being invested. We should remind ourselves that campaigners call for £5 a week of a Scottish child payment. The Scottish child payment is now currently £20 a week, and soon to be £25 a week will roll out to children and low-income households right across Scotland. This year alone, that is an investment of £225 million to some of the poorest families right across this country. That is a testament to the priorities. I was disappointed to see such a sweeping delusion of the Scottish Government's motion by the Labour Party this afternoon, because it unfortunately seeks to remove some very strong cross-party success on the delivery of disability benefit reform in this place, led by our Scottish Government, but actually moulded by Parliament. I think that Miles Briggs is reflecting some of that. I thank Bob Doris for taking that intervention. I understand his disappointment at the delusion of substantial parts of the motion, but many disabled people and carers are still on inadequate benefits. The eligibility criteria has not been changed or does it address anything like the 50 per cent rule or the 20 metre rule? Those are the reasons why we could not support the Government's motion today. Bob Doris? I thank Pam Duncan-Glans for that intervention. I will say more about what we are doing for those who live with disability shortly, but you mentioned carers. The Scottish Government's increased carers allowance supplement by 13 per cent. There is a real commitment to carers, Pam. I think that that is a reasonable thing to put on the record. Not for the moment. The introduction of the child disability and adult disability payments to the police PIP is widely acknowledged. Widely acknowledged is more humain, compassionate and dignified regarding the application and assessment process compared to the UK DWP regime. In particular, our partnership approach in this place is in clinically determined definitions of terminal illness, of fast tracking of awards and the introduction of indefinite awards will dramatically change the lives of many of my constituents, of all of our constituents, for the better. I know from my constituency case load just now the corrosive, the destructive and the devastating impact the current process can have on individuals and families. Those changes agreed by this Parliament will make a real difference and our Parliament, led by the Scottish Government, but our Parliament should rightly be proud. Of course we have to evaluate the impact of that and we have our social security experience panels and I know that the Scottish Government wants to monitor the success of the implementation of the new disability payments. I absolutely get that opposition parties will wish to push the Scottish Government further on the cost of living crisis, but to say that the Scottish Government, as some have done little for the poorest in society, bears no relation to reality out there, be that the Scottish Child payment that I have spoken about, be that mitigating the bedroom tax, be it mitigating the benefits cap in one moment I will, yes, be that Scottish benefits have been operated by 6 per cent. In this year alone, that is an additional £760 million in the system for the poorest in society because of decisions taken by this Government. That is not little, that is substantive, but of course we always want to try to seek to do more. I thank you for your last statements talking about wanting to do more and I think that that is the point that we are trying to make here and that a lot of the things that we are raising around the child payment and around the carers payments is because people with that experience are telling us that not enough is being done and that there is opportunity in a Parliament like this which has the powers that it has to do more and so I think politicians sometimes need to stop partner cells in back and always say what more can we do. Bob Doris. I thank Carol for that intervention. I would like to point out the tone of my speech because gradually in Parliament of the progress that I have made rather than the Scottish Government to be fair but I do not think that it is good enough for opposition politicians to rubbish the substantial progress that has been made in order to make a particular toe point. It just feels a little bit like that in relation to the Labour amendment but I acknowledge that we should always try to do more. We heard today about the low-income winter heating assistance that will be delivered later this year, £50,000 to £400,000 low-income households, a £20 million investment that I suspect that later this year we would call for that to be £100 or £200 or £300. I get it, that is politics but it has to be paid for. Likewise care allowance supplement support, we have heard already, I put on record the 13% increase that the Scottish Government has provided for that and we know that there have been two additional payments during the coronavirus but there are demands for it to go further again and I get that but it has got to be paid for. It is not enough just to cost what things will cost. You have to see where the money will come from and the opposition parties are singularly silent in relation to where the money would come from. Can I finish by mentioning two things briefly? I have a little bit of time for the interventions that I have taken. The first of all is on staffing. I know from speaking to many people that one of the things that is happening with staffing is that those who are sick and tired of the DWP system are making active choices to move from the DWP to Social Security Scotland and bringing in their skillset and releasing their energies to the type of social security system that we actually want to see. I would like to see to those people that they are very welcome. They are gaining jobs with Social Security Scotland, not losing them under DWP reforms, including in my constituency at Springburn. Finally, I have to say to Labour Party that I do not know where this money is going to come from but I am going to say something that I would quite like to happen to the Scottish Government and that is that as this cost of living crisis really squeezes those most vulnerable, yes, putting money into the pockets of the most vulnerable as quickly as possible is the right thing to do, but there are lots of organisations, charities and third sector organisations right across my constituency and across all members' constituencies. They will be looking to see what support they can be provided with to give that emergency food support, to give that emergency fuel support and give that emergency wraparound support, because not everyone will access all the benefits that they are entitled to, not everyone will budget such a tight budget accordingly to try and meet ends need and neither should they have to so that emergency immediate support for trusted anchor organisations across their communities is absolutely vital. I do not know where the money is coming from, but whether the Scottish Parliament, the UK Parliament, someone has to find it and we have to get the money out there into our communities to help the most vulnerable Presiding Officer. Assuming control of a wide range of social security payments is one of the most challenging tasks that this Parliament has ever undertaken. UK Governments have spent years trashing our social security safety net, cutting payments, attacking benefit payments, putting hurdles in the way of being able to appeal and making vulnerable people endure humiliating assessments. These UK Government attacks on the system triggered a United Nations investigation, which concluded that changes since 2010 amount to retrogressive measures in clear violation of the UK's human rights obligations. Rebuilding the social security system in Scotland with the powers that we have is a huge task, but one to which this Parliament must rise. The biggest challenge is the introduction of new payments for disabled people. They account for about half of the expenditure of all the benefits that have been devolved and are claimed by as many as one in ten Scots. They have also been some of the most brutally cut with some people losing as much as £7,700 as they were moved over to PIP, with women being more likely to lose entitlement than men. A better way of assessing applications is an important part of restoring fairness to the disability benefit system. Face-to-face assessments for PIP, which rarely proved necessary before PIP, were part of a deliberate colour strategy to cut support for some of our most vulnerable people. As a result of years of campaigning by disabled people, Scottish Greens won a change in the law on this last session. It is now prohibited to conduct face-to-face assessments if the necessary information already exists. The onus is on the Scottish Government to collect that information and where that is not possible. There is hope that the new client consultations will be less intrusive and a more supportive way of assessing entitlement. That will improve the experience of the new system, but it will also have a bearing on the amount of support paid out. The Fiscal Commission estimates that by the end of this Parliament £529 million extra will be paid out in adult disability payment compared to PIP, with an additional £40 million knock-on impact for carers. It attributes that to the changes ADP introduces, including to how it is assessed. We are now two months into the new system and we should be seeing the early impacts of those changes. It would be helpful if the Minister could update us in his closing on what impacts he has seen so far. However, it is simply not enough to change the way that payment is assessed. PIP did long-standing damage to the rights of disabled people by removing the lower-rate care component and changing the mobility rule to 20 metres. In its report on the 20-metre rule, the MS Society reports moving to PIP negatively impacted on the mobility of 65 per cent of MS sufferers and on the financial security of almost 80 per cent of them. That is what makes the Scottish Government's review of disability benefits so important. Quite rightly, the mobility element of ADP must be prioritised as part of that. The review will be independent, but it must also have the broadest possible terms of reference and no positive changes to the criteria must be off the table. In its paper on the review, the Scottish Government says that getting ADP up and running is not the limit of our aspirations for improving disability assistance in Scotland. That is good to hear. I hope that the Government works with disabled people to make those aspirations a reality. Rolling out the new system will not be complete until everyone who is entitled to claim is able to do so. The UK Government passed on to the Scottish Government some payments that were being claimed by less than half of those eligible, and some, like personal independent payments, did not even have published take-up statistics. The extra £1,200 per child that families will receive through the Scottish child payment when increased to £25 is key in achieving the child poverty reduction targets that this Parliament has set itself, but current projections are that too many families will miss out, as many as 23 per cent of eligible families, according to the Scottish Fiscal Commission. The cost of living crisis makes that even more crucial that every penny is going where it should. However, that is not an easy task. For years, successive UK Governments have taken every possible opportunity to stigmatise those who need the help of the social security system. The Scottish Government's direction on that is encouraging, reframing social security as an investment in society, not a drain on resources, is absolutely right. The £10 million investment in income maximisation services over this Parliament is also welcome, but I encourage the Scottish Government to see what more funding might be available, given that the return for every £1 invested in money advice can be as much as £20. It is also good to see that progress is being made on benefits automation. With the best start grant, school and nursery grants being paid automatically to Scottish child payment recipients from later this year. I was proud to work with the Scottish Government to ensure that more support is available to those hit by the UK Government's cruel benefit cap. That work will start later this year, and I would appreciate from the Minister an update on what has been done to make people aware of the extra support and how we can get it to them. To close, Presiding Officer, our social security system is the sign and signal of our care for one another. It should be and is based on some welcome fundamental principles of social security being a human right and as a collective investment. Are we there yet in fully realising those principles? No. Do we need to keep looking at options for increasing benefit eligibility? Yes. However, with an additional £760 million expenditure over this session, an end to heartless face-to-face assessments and progress on automating benefits, we are moving very definitely towards a more compassionate social security system, one of which we should all be proud. I am extremely proud of the route that Scotland has taken with our delivery of social security benefits. A compassionate, humane system with dignity, fairness and respect at its core. A system that sees social security as a human right, not a burden. The minister has laid out some detail of the 12 benefits that Scotland has power over, seven of which are brand new and unique to Scotland, such as the Scottish child payment, the most ambitious child poverty reduction measure in the whole of the UK. As well as creating new benefits, we are delivering a new approach where social security in Scotland is shaped by people with direct experience of the current UK benefit system in an effort to ensure that people are at the heart of our approach. The recent Audit Scotland report, which has been touched on today, found that there had been a conscious focus on the needs of claimants and that people have been really positive of their experience of engaging with social security Scotland. Commenting on the system, claimants have made comments such as my overall experience, I would say, was compassionate. There is no need for improvement as they are doing a first-class service. I have never in my life heard anyone describe the UK welfare state as a first-class service. It is more like a misery. I have sat in this chamber for over a year and listened to the slurs from the Conservative benches, telling us that we need to do better, that we need to do more to alleviate poverty, but how any Conservative MSP can have the brass neck to say that is beyond me. How long has the UK Government had to make life better for people in this country? How many times do you have to be told that the UK welfare system is inadequate and failing your constituents? Evidence gathered from the Social Justice Committee's debt inquiry heard that universal credit waiting times are one of the biggest contributors to people falling into debt, a policy that was written on the back of a fag packet by an out-of-touch minister in London. The UK welfare state used to give enough money so that people could just about scrape by, but now it does not even do that. The Conservative party's response to the cost of living crisis has been deemed woefully inadequate by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and, to be honest, that is putting it kindly. It is an absolute riot, really. For a start, the Prime Minister should resign. Perhaps my Conservative colleagues could grow a spine and stop supporting illegal parties, sleaze, corruption and stop with this complete hypocrisy when it comes to the UK benefit system as it fills no one. I also want to touch briefly on the amendment from the Scottish Labour Party. The Labour amendment is essentially saying that we have not done enough to alleviate poverty, which is confusing, because we have already heard today of all the new measures that Scotland has taken to ensure a more positive and humane system. Instead of laying an amendment calling on the UK Government to devolve all social security powers to Hollywood, it seems that it would rather that it stayed with the Tories at Westminster and try and vain to attack the Scottish Government instead. It would rather, Presiding Officer, that the powers over the six-week assessment period on universal credit, powers over the rape clause, powers that mean children in this country have to use food banks, they want those powers to remain in the clutches of the Tories in Westminster. Not at the moment, thank you, I need to make progress. The Labour Party has absolutely no credibility when it comes to social security. It is of little surprise that its party was once again rejected at the ballot box, and until it actually realised that the only way to truly tackle poverty is for our Parliament to have all the powers of any other independent country, then anything that it says in this place about how Scotland should tackle poverty is a token gesture at best. I want to take a moment to highlight people going for PIP assessments. Did the UK Government create a system that makes people have to think of what they are like on their worst day because anything less than that and their money is harshly and unjustifiably taken away from them? How warped is that? For anyone who has ever experienced this or helped someone fill in these forms or take this assessment, you will know that it is a degrading and distressing process. Scotland has taken a different approach, and the roll-out of Scottish Social Security benefits has proven a success. However, let me remind the chamber that this is despite having limited powers and despite having a Tory Government who has presided over a benefit system that punishes, degrades and damages those who need support the most. Renowned for its harshness and degrading nature, the UK benefit system has been condemned by the UN for its callous approach. People in poverty in the United Kingdom in the 21st century have died, and that falls at the feet of the UK welfare system and an austerity agenda that targets those that are trapped in the cycle of poverty that this system has created. The Scottish Government has achieved more with our social security system in four years than has been achieved in decades—not just now, I really need to make progress, sorry. In four years than has been achieved in decades under Labour and Tory Governments down south. That is important to repeat. We do not have all the powers. The concrete boots of Westminster that we are currently wearing in Scotland must be taken into consideration when discussing our social security system. We are undertaking a complex process of the like that has never been seen before. Yes, there will be challenges and yes, there will be things that can be improved, but we are just at the very beginning of creating a wonderful system for all our constituents. Finally, while I am confident that the system will only continue to improve, it is high time that the Conservatives and the rest of the chamber get real and address the elephant in the room, that we will never, ever be able to fully build the truly transformative system that we need in this country without all the powers of independence. With all the powers of social security, we will not have to worry about the UK undermining the good work that is going on in our country at every step of the way. Presiding Officer, the motion before us is frankly disappointing. The Scottish Government could have given us a measured assessment of its progress towards implementing devolved social security. It could have given us an honest appraisal of the challenges that they lay ahead in implementing those benefits. Instead, we have been presented with a torrent of self-congratulation for a job that is not even half done. The Scottish Labour Amendment notes that the ground scale of the rhetoric of developed benefit from the Scottish Government in years gone by. To read the motion before us today, you would think that this was a lap of victory by the Scottish Government rather than a report on its early progress. But there is much more to be done and many uncertainties that we will need addressing along the way. The Audit Scotland report raises several notes of caution. It does so on staffing levels for adult disability payments. It stresses how many unknowns there are and how adaptable social security Scotland will have to be to administer the benefit effectively. It says, and I quote, that the resource implication of how adult disability payment is administered will only become clear once it is fully rolled out with the case transfer underway. This is not a small consideration. Social security Scotland will have to be able to respond extremely rapidly if cases exceed exceptions or if other problem arises. While we all hope that this process will be smooth, the challenges should not be underestimated. Yet the motion before us makes no mention of this challenge. On the extension of Scottish child payments, the Audit Scotland report highlights significant risk in the Scottish Government approach to bridging the digital infrastructure gaps with the Department for Work and Pensions. While the report acknowledges that efforts are underway to manage the risk, we can all think of examples of new Government IT system at all levels of Government which we have had significant problems in the early days. The Audit Scotland report also highlights the problem of replacement being needed to the DWP payments platform after the Scottish Government's now extended agreements to use it expires in 2024. Yes, the first thing the Scottish Government did upon getting this devolved service was to hand it back to the Westminster to run, and we are supposed to believe in their capability to manage in independent Scotland. The report said that this is a critical aspect of Social Security Scotland's digital infrastructure, and a long-term solution will need to be put in place to provide suitable payments functionality for Social Security Scotland beyond this point. Another big project, another mysterious timescale, and another unknown cost, which led me to my final point, the issue of a £760 million black hole in the Social Security funding by 2025. The Audit Scotland report says, and I again quote, sorry, I want to progress. The Scottish Government needs to plan for how it manages the long-term sustainability of this expenditure and be clearer about how it will improve outcome for the Scottish people. The Scottish Government need to be clearer with the Scottish people. How often must we hear these words in this place? We cannot underestimate the challenges faced here. These are difficult process once that can literally mean life and death for people affected by them. They must be given a onus and realistic appraisal. The Scottish Government is taking on a vitally important part of the state. It has made repeated claims that it can run them better than Westminster, but looking at the motion before us today, it risks doing so with complicacy. We all know that SNP can talk the talk. On an issue as important as this, we need them to learn the lesson of their past failures. Cracks in a social security system cannot just be painted over like an unfinished ferry. We need them to understand that this time the consequence for delivering could be truly catastrophic. Unfortunately, the Scottish Government's motion shows little sign of the gravity of the situation. I will be supporting Scottish Labour amendments today. I have heard the term self-congratulatory thrown at the Scottish Government as if it is an accusation of something horrific a few times this afternoon. I want to take a moment first to respond to it. It is perfectly normal to celebrate achievements, and I sincerely believe that achievements are being made by the front bench on this issue that are worth celebrating. More importantly, surely there should be some recognition that this debate and this motion do not serve the Scottish Government by highlighting the progress that it is making, but it also tells the public that those benefits exist and that the Scottish Government wants them to claim them if eligible, and that it wants to help them to receive financial support, because that is not a given. That is not the message that other Governments have sent disabled people in this country in the past. Today's motion is incredibly meaningful beyond what Labour and the Tories have been trying to reduce it to. I want to be clear that this issue is personal for me. I am a disabled person. I am in receipt of PIP. I have been through the process and I have helped countless others through it and their appeals, often with plenty of tears. As our committee convener, Elena, mentioned in her contribution, I visited Social Security Scotland in Dundee very recently. She is right, it truly was very emotional for me to see just how differently things are already being done. Rather than disabled people feeling that the process is trying to catch them out, we will be faced with accessible language, illustrations and helpful prompts to ensure that we are giving the assessors all the relevant information that they need, and instead of having to seek out a cab adviser with a points cheat sheet, the help is built into the application itself. Rather than a private contractor being encouraged to turn down requests for assistance, assessments when needed will be done in-house and in a way that works for the applicant. No more forcing people who have chronic pain and mobility issues to come in for an assessment just so that someone can peer through the window and make sure that they really are in agony. Has someone who has dragged across town to be stared and sneered at and then asked by an ATOS assessor why, if I felt suicidal and had been depressed for so long, I hadn't been successful in killing myself? I do not underestimate the difference that this will make two lives. The word trauma has been used already a few times today and the DWP's approach has been traumatising. It has made people worse and it has caused immeasurable pain and suffering. The changes already made will have a huge effect on the experience of claimants, particularly those with mental health issues, chronic conditions or a terminal illness. I do think that we have to be realistic and fair this afternoon and it's a shame that so many have chosen not to be. Massive improvements have been made, huge strides in social security and social justice in Scotland thanks to the SNP Government's approach to implementing a new system. It is not a small thing that people are now being treated with respect when they come forward for help rather than suspicion. It is not a minor change that disabled people will no longer have to seek out an advocate from cab to tell them what they need to mention on their forms and it's not nothing that we are building at pace a fairer system for Scotland. However, an inescapable truth is that so much of our hard work and the impact of decisions to prioritise spending on social security here in Scotland is constantly reduced to mitigation purely through the fact that we are tied to a conservative UK Government which wants to reduce welfare spending rather than increase it. The Scottish Government gives money directly to families in poverty trusting parents to spend the money where it is needed and tackle child poverty while the UK Government sticks a cap on how many kids it can help to feed. The Scottish Government doubles the Scottish child payment adding a tenor a week and the UK Government takes 20 quid off that same family's income. The Scottish Government mitigates and mitigates spending millions ensuring that Scots are not affected by the hated bedroom tax, pouring money into the Scottish welfare fund to give crisis funding to those who have been left behind by the UK Government and we've heard today that the Scottish Government is acting with one hand tied behind its back. The Scottish Government is acting with money being taken out of the pockets of the people that it is fighting to pull out of poverty. We go to the UK Government and I'll take an intervention. Pamda Cenglanti Thank you and I appreciate the members taking the intervention. In an example recently, where Rishi Sunak gave a much too late and very inadequate £150 to people in council tax and that came to Scotland in Barnett consequentials, the Scottish Government made exactly the same choice. How could the member explain that, when the Government in Scotland had the same amount of money, it made the same decisions as the Tories rather than targeted it at families who needed the most? Emma Roddick I think that that's one very specific example. If that were the only thing that the Scottish Government was doing to help people in poverty, I might agree with Pamda Cenglanti, but as I've just mentioned, there are plenty of other things that are going on, including brand new benefits, to help people and target to families who are going to be experiencing poverty and, more importantly, whose children might be growing up in poverty. We go to the UK Government and tell them that. They say, well, you have the powers now. Sure, we've got the powers, but they're keeping the money and they won't let us borrow our own and devolve more fiscal powers, which would make a world of difference when designing a brand new system. My colleague Natalie Don put it well when she talked about powers in the UK undermining us every step of the way. That two-tier system doesn't work. Separate Governments with conflicting ideologies dealing with two ends of one system doesn't work. Social security makes the point more than anything else that this union doesn't work. For real change, for the policies that Scotland votes for, which are progressive, not conservative, we need independence. We are swimming against the tide here, trying to do what's right for the people of Scotland with limited fiscal powers. You would think that Labour would spend a moment joining us in trying, but you'd think that listening to them today that there's no difference between the direction being taken here and the direction being taken by the Tories down south. The difference is huge. I think that people will see that. I think that many other disabled people and people in poverty across the Highlands and Islands and across Scotland will get their Social Security Scotland letters and feel as emotional as I did when I was in Dundee. I thank the member for taking the intervention. I have said in my speech and my colleagues have also said in their speech that we welcome the change in direction in terms of assessment processes. As I said earlier, the bar wasn't high, but the reality is that people in Scotland are living in desperate, desperate, desperate states. It is not the case that just because we take a different direction has a different impact on people, and that's why we have placed our support in our motion to look at doing things much, much more differently, to put money in the pockets of people who need it the most. I think that it's disingenuous to suggest that the changes that are being made in policy at the moment by the Scottish Government will not have an impact. It's easy to shout more and more when you don't have to write the budget, but more than that, Scottish Labour's manifesto last year contained a policy to double the Scottish child payment. The Scottish Government has done what Scottish Labour said it would do if it were in its position just now. I think that reacting to a Government delivering again and again as far as possible on what your own party wanted to happen by taking issue with celebrating progress or describing it as little action is contrary behaviour that my mum would have rightly described as thron. I think that I'm done with the interventions. Our system is fit for the future and focused on delivering benefits to people, not gatekeeping and trying to cheat folk out of what they are entitled to. It is worth all of us telling people how different things are going to be and how differently they are going to be treated. We all have a duty to get that message across and to be genuine, not to awfulise any creases that are going to be ironed out. Thank you very much. Ms Roddick, we now move to the closing speeches. I call Firstly Mark Griffin, who joins us online for a generous six minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Sorry, I can't be in the chamber today. I've got a sick child at home, which means I can't take interventions links, which may be the track from the centre of the debate, but also because of the generous allocation of time that you've given me. I think that today's debate has been somewhat familiar. The Government benches have, as always, much to congratulate themselves for, while the rest of us are still waiting for the real delivery to happen, but on reflecting on the progress that the Government has made in a debate and some of the things that are rightly congratulating themselves for in terms of ban in the private sector assessment lifetime awards. I hope that I've moved towards a few minutes at some points. I have to reflect that a lot of those came about because of Labour amendments to the Digital and Original Social Security Act in the first place and have came about as a result of pressure from Opposition members, but every year it seems almost for half a decade that it's somehow the biggest year for the new system. However, I guarantee members what disabled people, carers and families struggling to put food on the table want, is to go about their lives and to have a system that they can rely on. What they want is a system complete so that they can realise the human right of social security and investment the motion talks about. As Pam Duncan Glancy said, what we actually have is three and four families not getting the child payment, disabled people still subject to the 20 metre rule and carers not knowing when their benefit will be fully paid by the Scottish Government. Social security is the money that insulates the poorest in society from financial shocks and protects people from being driven into poverty. It's both a lifeline and a right, but the safe and secure transition promise before real changes are made is taking far too long and it's costing people up and down Scotland. The irony is that those delays are simultaneously compounding the understaffing and black hole funding now up to £700 million, as highlighted by Fousal Childry, with vital resources being expended on price EIT contractors and DWP bills instead of being directly invested in the people of Scotland. The opportunity to discuss these delays and the financial costs of establishing the system has been far too few since this programme began when we considered the cost and complexity of the system. I want to echo the comments from Miles Biggs and Willie Rennie who talked about the costs of establishing the system, which are more than doubled since we passed the original Social Security Act. Barely weeks before the pandemic, the Government published a long overdue updated business case outlining costs in excess of £2 billion to 2025, including an admission that the DWP would pocket £400 million to run the benefits, but we waited for the Scottish system to come on stream. Now, likely very much out of date, a further update I think should have been published ahead of today's debate. And fundamentally, the Scottish Government have underestimated the complex day of task, and have been unable to specify or control what exactly in that original plan has led to the substantial delays and additional costs. The recent audit Scotland recalls some bleak warnings stating that timescales are challenging and substantial risks remain, that hard-working staff are having to juggle with temporary and manual processes, and the Scottish Government has extended its deal with the DWP to use their payment system and the number of contractors that have doubled. Members have spoken about the desire across the whole chamber to embed a human rights approach in the forthcoming disability and carers benefits, but by mirroring the UK eligibility rules, I seriously doubt that we can achieve that. Audit Scotland reports honestly that a swath of benefits are still classed as being replanned, including employment injuries assistance, and members will know from previous speeches that I am pursuing a bill to establish the scrutiny and research council for such a benefit, because a simple rebrand wouldn't, I think, deliver the human rights-based approach, nor the dignity, fairness and respect that we aspire to. Changes are required now, and while we continue to await the Government consultation, I hope that we can make to discuss a line in our work before I lodge my bill later this year. The genesis of that bill was asking the question of trade unions, should Covid be an industrial disease? Given how many Covid at work simply for doing their jobs and in too many cases virtually destroying their ability to work, I think that the answer remains an overwhelming yes, and I would be delighted if the minister closes today by confirming that people with long Covid will have entitlement to employment injuries assistance. Similarly, unless there is a fundamental change in the benefit employment injuries assistance, the Parliament will soon be asked to accept regulations for a devolved benefit with an equalities impact assessment, which will say that only 7 per cent of applications for that entitlement would come from women. It is clear that I hope that that would be entirely unacceptable to this chamber, but that would be the case if a lifting-shift approach was taken, doing so would risk embedding a system that promotes inequalities and fails to reflect modern Scotland. That number is so low because women are ultimately denied entitlement to the Westminster benefit, because it is a benefit for the injuries and diseases that men got at work in the last century. As a result, cleaners with respiratory and skin diseases are not recognised by the current scheme. A best cancer that is caused by shift work, that is the top occupational cancer in women, is not recognised. Even asbestos related to variant cancer, which is the most common gynaplogical cancer in the UK, is not recognised. However, women are missing entirely from that scheme, but they will have to wait for further re-planning, it seems. Despite the rhetoric, the promise of transformational changes to benefits promised that dignity, fairness and respect are still not yet being delivered. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr Griffin. I now call on Jeremy Balfour for around nine minutes, Mr Balfour. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Let me follow in Willie Rennie's three steps by starting with some positives in my speech. I think there is a consensus amongst the whole of this Parliament that we want the devolved social security benefits to work. We saw that when the bill went through, we have seen that in committee, and I do wish the minister well. I am glad that he has taken his jacket off, his sleeves are rolled up, and we will support him where that is going well, but we will also critique when it is not going well that is the role of opposition. Because the devolution of some areas of the welfare system presented a welcome opportunity for Scotland to create a uniquely Scottish approach to social security that is underpinned by the broad shortage of the UK welfare state, Scotland having two Governments working together provides the ability to enact local policies with the backing of a larger national purse. Unfortunately, the powers handed to the SNP Government have been squandered, resulting in social security falling far short of its potential. The motion that we have been derasing today amounts to nothing more, as others have said, of the Government giving itself a massive pat on the back. A pat on the back, I might add, is entirely misplaced. Either the SNP are burying their heads in the sand and ignoring their shortcomings, or we really believe that a record of delay in efficiency is the best that we can do in this country. Because make no mistake, Social Security Scotland has not had a smooth start. Every estimate that the Scottish Government has made has been drastically wrong. Miles Briggs pointed some of those out in his speech earlier. The SNP stated that it would cost £307 million to set up the agency. The number is ballooned to £651 million, over 100 per cent over budget. The SNP claimed that Social Security Scotland would require 1,900 people to operate. Again, that number has almost doubled to 3,500. Again and again, the SNP makes the same mistake. It presents favourable numbers that will inevitably end up being shown as fantasy when it comes to reality. The list of problems does not end with the setting up of Social Security Scotland. It is an on-going issue. Admin costs at Social Security Scotland have gone from £36 million in 2019-20 to £130 million in 2021. Staff costs have almost doubled over the same period, whereas other admin costs increased from £13.8 million to £88 million. Those are not small margins of error. We are talking about millions of pounds of taxpayer's money that should be going into the pockets of those who need it, not wasted on a bureaucracy that the Scottish Government has created and encouraged. That is unacceptable in any moment. In any other sector, that kind of gross mismanagement would not be tolerated and could only lead to people being fired. In the SNP world, the Government not only tolerates it but is so proud of its record that it came to Parliament this afternoon to showcase it and to ask us to support and motion saying how wonderful they are. Those costs overruns and mis-targets would be more understandable if the service that the claimants are receiving was of high quality. However, instead, they have been let down by a Government that is more focused on sound bites and headlines when truly providing those in need. Would he acknowledge the very positive client feedback that Social Security Scotland has had, where more than 90 per cent see that service is good or very good, and the fact that, because Social Security Scotland is delivering seven benefits that are not available elsewhere in the UK, that is required additional resourcing and investment. We are doing more, and we need to invest in that, not just to build a system for the future but to make sure that we deliver in the here and now. Jeremy Balfour Let me come on to that, because across the board, processing times are unacceptable, it has taken far too long to get money into the hands and sometimes the money is not even reaching the bank account at the right time. Let us look at the figures as we have them. Not my figures before the minister stands up and says that ministers from Social Security Scotland in December 2021, only 1 per cent of Scottish child payments were processed within 10 days. Only 5 per cent of funeral payment applications were processed within 10 days. The average being as high as 18. Four per cent of young care grant claims were processed within 10 days, and only 2 per cent of best art grant applications were processed within 10 days. Over the Easter weekend, and here is the hard-hitting figure that affects real individuals over the Easter weekend, Presiding Officer, over 2,000 Scottish child and Scottish child disability payments were delayed by more than one working day. That represents 20 per cent of all claims. The payments were due on Thursday, 14 April, but were not received until Tuesday, 19 April, because of a holiday weekend. That meant that families went without the expected money for four days. I thank the member for giving way. He mentioned delays over weekends and so forth. That has been pointed out already in the debate, but he is aware, I take it, that the delay that is being applied for the UK's universal benefit is five weeks before the first payment is made. I thank the member very gently. We are talking about benefits related to disability. Let me make one point very clear. Are you going to make a point? You are saying that five weeks is okay because it is delivered by the UK Tory Government. Is that what you are saying? Through the chair, please. I am saying, cabinet secretary, that we are debating benefits that have been devolved to this Government to look after. What I am saying is that, as someone who has been in receipt of PIP for 25 years or not on one occasion had that payment been relating to my kite, you have been running a system for months and you have already failed. Those are not only statistics. They represent real people going through a real hardship who need real help. How do you think that it leads to them that this Government is celebrating its performance? No, I am sorry, I have run out of time. A performance that shows crippling inefficiency and has left people waiting. There can be no doubt that Social Services Scotland is not fulfilling its full pretension. I do not blame them, I blame this Government and something has to change. I support the amendment in the name of Miles Briggs and I implore others in the chamber to do so. We will be critical friends. We want to see this work but stop saying that you have got it right when you simply have failed on so many occasions. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr Balfour. A gentle reminder to colleagues, the only U in the chamber is the chair, so please address my remarks through the chair. With that, minister B applies if you could take us up to just before decision time. Next week, next Wednesday, to be precise, is the fourth anniversary of royal cent of the Social Security Scotland Act, which this chamber, to its very great credit, passed unanimously. One of the important aspects of that act was that we legislated for the principles in which we would deliver devolved social security. One of those principles states very clearly that social security is an investment in the people of Scotland. This has been acknowledged in today's debate and it has been great to hear the reflections of colleagues from Carl Monaghan, Maggie Chapman, Bob Doris and many others. We talked about the change in culture that we are leading. That is after decades of social security being top down in the public consciousness and by Governments elsewhere. Particularly the Conservative Government and in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, but it all started in the new Labour era when Tony Blair talked about welfare should become a hand up, not a hand out, as if a hand out was a bad thing to happen. Actually, this is an important place to start, because the ideological opposition to welfare has got us to this point where we are having to make so many interventions to get our society back to the place where we do eradicate poverty. We make a bigger difference so that we can fulfil everyone's potential. To this Parliament's credit, we agreed on that shared principle that investment in the people of Scotland is what social security is all about. We need to continue to build on that. That is what today's debate has been about. It is about reflecting, listening and aiming to do more. We are leading on those islands. Whatever your view on the constitutional position, we are the ones collectively who are reinvigorating the concept of social security being an important aspect and a necessary aspect and something that should not be stigmatised on those islands. Quite rightly in that framework, people are asking Government to do more. I was glad to see today that the chancellor used some of his fast powers to tackle the cost of living crisis—a windfall tax, which I called for as Public Finance Minister in the chamber a couple of years ago. I am not taking personal credit for that. I am just saying that it has been an idea that has been around a while. We are glad to see it finally happen. We will see if that has any benefit for Scotland, which we are not clear on at the moment. We have seen interventions using universal credit system, pension system and for those on disabled benefits. We welcome that. However, it is inadequate in terms of the longer term, and we were disappointed to see that further investment in terms of an uplift in universal credit has not been delivered. We will continue to push the UK Government to do more. Of course, it is unwinding on all the problems that it has created for itself by not investing in social security and delivering vast cuts to public purse and household budgets for a significant time. A number of members in today's debate, Willie Rennie, Karen Monaghan and others, talked about how they want us to do more in the Scottish Government. We will do more, and I laid some of that out in my opening statement. We are working within a limited budget. The Parliament has some taxation powers, but they are limited. We have to make choices as a collective, as a democracy, and we have to be serious in those choices. That is about in a fixed budget position. If we want to invest in one area of support, where does that resource come from? In the period ahead of this serious time, we need to raise our game collectively as we go towards the next budget process on those points. I appreciate the intervention. In two specific areas, the Labour Party has come to the Government with suggestions about how it could use the money that it has and tell it where it could get the money from to either reach children who were over six so that it could get the Scottish child payment and so that it could get it at the doubled rate, or that it could put £400 in the pockets of the families who needed it the most. There were examples of how the Government could have used their powers to put money in people's pockets, but the Government has refused to heed our calls. Can the Government say why? As Pam Duncan-Glancy knows, I respect her constructive suggestions in good faith, but the process that Pam Duncan-Glancy engaged in from memory—correct me if I'm wrong—was not in synergy with the budget process. We have to be clever and focused as we go into this budget process to make sure that we utilise resources effectively in the period. Part of that is about carers. I know that Carol Monaghan asked for more detail about how we will deliver the Scottish carers assistance, our benefit. I talked about my opening remarks, the timetable on which we will deliver that. As I said, the consultation for that just closed in recent days, so I will come back to Parliament to committee on what the proposals were and how we will deliver them. I'll take an intervention. Miles Briggs Minister for taking this intervention. In terms of budget scrutiny and future projections, we know that the £760 million is now being projected to fund the welfare policies by 2026. Willie Rennie myself, Mark Griffin, has raised that point. Where are the Scottish Government going to lay out where that money will come from and what budgets potentially will be cut? We've seen over £250 million cut from local authorities, for example. Where will that come from? Miles Briggs raised an important point. Through the medium-term financial strategy and the positions that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance will take in the period ahead and what she will set out to Parliament, of course collectively we will have to make decisions on our budget position as we go further ahead. However, the Scottish Government is committed to providing the social security benefits of which we've made provision for and in which we've set out in our programme. The question for this Parliament will be, as always, in a fixed Parliament, how do we balance the budget? Of course, the big flaw in Miles Briggs' argument is that the Conservatives never come with a balanced position. It's always spend more and tax less and it just doesn't have a sensible or credible position. In terms of the period ahead, I will also be setting out in due course how we finish the programme of devolved benefits. I've been able to update Parliament today where possible. There's another programme business case that we will publish by the end of the year, but we also have to, as I said, work with the DWP and we're not in a position yet to be able to give full clarity with them, but we will do to Parliament in due course. I am dispirited somewhat that today there have been a number of members who've accused the Scottish Government of back-patting. A difference that a Government has made is not back-patting, but it is an effective mechanism, as Emma Roddick emphasised, for raising awareness of benefits and helping our constituents. There is more to do and we appreciate and acknowledge that, but there is a lot that's been done. The child disability payment has already helped 3,000 more children at a cost of £3 million. The young carer grant has helped 4,000 people at a cost of £1.6 million. The child winter heating assistance, one of our new benefits, made 20,000 payments in the last year of £4 million. The carers allowance supplement has paid £188 million to 126,000 carers since 2018. That's support that's not available elsewhere in the UK. The Scottish child payment is supporting more than 100,000 children as we speak, and when we roll it out and extend it, we'll be supporting 400,000 children across Scotland. That's using our powers, that's making a difference. We're mitigating against the bedroom tax at a cost of £350 million. That's money that we shouldn't be having to waste on that. We're going to be mitigating the benefit cap at a cost of £10 million. I'm very happy to update Maggie Chapman that we will be working with local authorities to raise awareness of how to do that and the third sector as well. For those who today criticised our adult disability payment, I listened to what Elena Whitham and Emma Roddick said about the difference that they saw when they went to learn about adult disability payment at Social Security Scotland. An invitation was extended to the Conservative and Labour Benches. They did not take it up, but we look forward to welcoming them. I think that the minister should apologise, because committee members, including myself and other members, went to briefing with Social Security Scotland. Two members who did go couldn't attend, and so have gone. I think that he needs to correct the record. Although that is not a point of order, it is now on the record. I'm happy to clarify that we will be very happy to invite members from the committee again. Members have been, but they haven't been to the follow-up session where they would have been taken through the application form for adult disability payment and seen the difference that it made. Some Conservative members made statements about the fact that they did not feel that the eligibility criteria was correct. Of course, a very simple way of changing that would be for the UK Government to change the eligibility criteria for PIP across the UK. We are not going to create a two-tier system, and members know that we are looking very seriously through our independent review at what changes could potentially be made. I know that there are different views in this chamber on Scotland's constitutional future. We are responsible for building a system that will serve the needs of Scotland whatever the outcome of the next referendum on independence. I also know that there wouldn't be a Scottish Social Security system if it wasn't for all those who campaigned for yes in 2014, and I want to acknowledge their contribution. There is much more that we want to do, Presiding Officer, with the powers that we have and new powers that we think that this Parliament should have. Our focus right now is on making the biggest difference that we can with the powers and resources that we have. I make a plea to Parliament that we need to work together to be constructive to help give our constituents as much support as we can in this time of need. We are happy to accept criticism but creating cynicism for political point-scoring is just unhelpful in this situation. We need Opposition parties to stop talking down to Social Security Scotland and get behind the shared project in actions as well as words to help their constituents. We have made remarkable progress and together we will do a lot more. Instead of thinking about the next headline or election, let's unite and help the people that we represent. That concludes the debate on update on delivery of Social Security benefits. It's now time to move on to the next item of business, which is consideration of two parliamentary bureau motions. I ask George Adam on behalf of the parliamentary bureau to move motions 4617 on committee membership and 4618 on committee substitutes. Thank you Minister. The question on these motions will be put at decision time and there are four questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first is amendment 4621.1 in the name of Miles Briggs, which seeks to amend motion 4621 in the name of Ben MacPherson on update on delivery of Social Security benefits be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we'll move to a vote and there'll be a short suspension until I allow members to access the digital voting system.