The SNP Government will not scrap the two-child cap on benefits despite being handed a £3.4 billion increase in spending, the Finance Secretary has suggested.
Shona Robison claimed the extra cash announced by Rachel Reeves at yesterday’s UK Budget was no “bonanza”.
The Labour Chancellor today challenged the SNP ministers at Holyrood to spend the uplift on improving waiting times in Scotland’s overstretched NHS.
Robison later accepted the additional funding would be “largely” for the NHS and other frontline public services.
But she appeared to rule out using the cash to either restore the universal winter fuel payment for pensioners in Scotland or abolish the two-child cap.
SNP ministers have repeatedly slammed the hated policy – introduced by the Tories a decade go – and criticised Labour for not axing it when the party won power in July.
Robison claimed today “austerity will continue for those impacted by the two-child cap, and also the loss of the winter fuel payment”.
Asked if her Government will look to mitigate those policies now extra money is available, she told BBC Radio Scotland: “Let’s be clear, the money we have received is largely for the NHS and for frontline public services. This does not give us a huge area of headroom to spend on other things.
“The money is directly for services and frontline public services, so any money that I divert into other things will be money from the NHS or other frontline services, so we have to be quite careful here.
“This isn’t a bonanza that allows us to spend money on mitigating, as we have done, largely mitigated a lot of Westminster welfare policies, but we can’t continue to mitigate.
“We are already spending, I think it is about £130 million at the last count, mitigating welfare policies from Westminster like the bedroom tax for example.
“We have the Scottish child payment which we fund which helps those children who are living in poverty.”
While she said SNP ministers have “done so much to mitigate Westminster welfare policies”, she said the new money announced in the Budget “clearly has come to be directed to things like the NHS, and the NHS requires some investment”.
She also said the Scottish Government is seeking clarity on whether public sector employers will be compensated for the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions announced as part of the Budget.
The Finance Secretary said: “We absolutely need to see those costs fully covered, because they could add up to the £500 million in costs for the public sector unless it is fully funded.”
With Scotland having a larger public sector than the rest of the UK, Ms Robison stressed the importance of having those costs “fully funded” and not just receiving a proportionate share of cash to be distributed across the UK.
“We will be seeking urgent clarity on that today,” she said.
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