By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 4 June 2014
Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has welcomed a report from a panel of experts calling for an independent Scotland to raise the minimum wage, inflation-link benefits, scrap the ‘bedroom tax’, boost the carers’ allowance and relax benefits sanctions.
‘I strongly endorse the group’s view that the welfare system should act as a strong safety net and a springboard to a better life,’ Sturgeon said.
‘They are right when they say that work should be the best route out of poverty for most people but that the rise in in-work poverty needs to be addressed if this is to be the reality.
‘Following a vote for independence, we would be committed to taking on several recommendations straight away to deal with those aspects of the current system that are pushing so many people into poverty.’
The report, commissioned by the Scottish Government from an independent expert group, argues that raising the minimum wage to the level of the living wage – an increase of £1.34 per hour – would yield an extra £280m in tax revenues to a Scottish exchequer. The cost to employers would be offset by phased reductions to National Insurance contributions.
Sturgeon committed ministers to consider that idea, along with proposals to replace the Work Programme with a new personalised and cross-sector approach to helping the unemployed into work, and a new Social Security Allowance to combine existing benefits but exclude Housing Benefit.
The group was chaired by Martyn Evans of the Carnegie Trust. He said:‘We have concluded that a future welfare system should be based on three principles: fairness, personalisation and simplicity.
‘There is clearly a breakdown of trust in welfare and we all have an interest in restoring that trust and confidence.’
But the report found little favour with the pro-Union parties. Labour’s Jackie Baillie called it a ‘cynical’ attempt to win support for independence.
‘Everyone is offered more money, or less taxation, with no means of explaining how any of it is paid for,’ he said.
Willie Rennie, for the Liberal Democrats, said it would disappoint those expecting independence to deliver bold and radical changes in welfare policy.