THIS Monday was the first time that the Conservative ministers had to face questions since the General Election about their plans for welfare and support for vulnerable people.
And never was there a stronger example of the need for urgent devolution of powers over welfare to the Scottish Parliament.
MPs asked a range of serious questions on issues from disability benefits to child maintenance and personal independence payments, raising a series of points while highlighting a number of disturbing cases where the current system is failing those who need the most help.
Each reply from each of the Tory ministers was almost the same: we don’t know, or we don’t care.
I was grateful to have the opportunity to ask a question about benefits sanctions, where payments are stopped, often for spurious reasons.
In all too many cases, those who fall victim to this callous regime are left with no choice but to turn to foodbanks for support in order to feed themselves and their families. It is a modern-day tragedy.
I raised the example of David Duncan from Fife, who was claiming benefits after being made redundant last year. He is actively looking for work, but reportedly had his payments frozen after suffering a heart attack and missing an appointment at his local Jobcentre. I had thought that surely even this Government would show compassion for someone who appears to have clearly suffered an injustice at the hands of the system, and he is not alone.
Duncan’s case received no sympathy from Priti Patel, the Minister for Employment. He received no apology. Instead I simply received a blanket denial.
“I do not recognise anything that the honourable lady has said,” she told me.
“There is no robust evidence that directly links sanctions and foodbank use.”
This wilful blindness and disregard for the facts relating to vulnerable people is astonishing when witnessed first-hand, especially because the evidence linking the harsh sanctions regime and an increase in the use of foodbanks is clear, and it is growing.
For example, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger, which contained representatives from all across the political divide, reported a clear link between the two in its report Feeding Britain, which was published last year.
The House of Commons’ own Work and Pensions Committee report on benefits sanctions policy called for a comprehensive and independent review of the process only a couple of months ago.
Recent work carried out by Castlemilk Law and Money Advice Centre paints a distressing picture of how this approach had compounded the poverty of so many in Glasgow, while the British Medical Journal, not known for its public commitment to knee-jerk liberalism, carried an article in its April edition which drew a clear and direct link between a higher rate of sanctions and a rise in foodbank use.
Denying this link demonstrates a flagrant misunderstanding of the facts by this Government. But this blindness to the truth is not simply about politics. It has catastrophic human consequences too.
When Iain Duncan Smith stood up to defend the Government’s record, he dispensed with all pretence of compassion. Instead of answering the questions put to him, he goaded the Labour benches with every retort. This is what people have voted for, he said. Quoting Labour’s Shadow Minster Rachel Reeves, he reminded us all of her commitment before the General Election that “Labour will be tougher than the Tories when it comes to the benefits bill”. While he kept repeating that the country was getting the policies it voted for, it hammered home to me once again that while this may have been the case for England, Scotland had certainly not signed up for this regretful approach.
I know that the SNP has no monopoly on compassion. I understand that across the whole spectrum of Scottish politics there are kind, thoughtful people who balk at the reckless approach adopted by Ian Duncan Smith and Priti Patel.
That’s why it’s essential that the powers over welfare are fully devolved to the Scottish Parliament, and quickly.
The more I see first-hand from this Conservative Government the clearer it becomes to me that the Scottish Parliament and Westminster are on divergent paths in this area, as well as many others. The Secretary of State is partially right, because these are the polices that the majority in England voted for. But they are categorically not the policies that Scotland supported at the ballot box in May.
I’m sure I’m not alone in believing that the Scottish Parliament would take a different, more compassionate approach if we had the power to forge our own path. That’s what my colleagues and I will continue to argue for over the weeks and months ahead.
Thousands who have had to turn to foodbanks across Scotland over the past few years can depend on it.
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