SOCIAL Justice Secretary Alex Neil has come up with an action plan to give Scots a better deal on welfare rights and benefits despite being restricted by the UK Government .

He is demanding that the Scottish Government be given the powers to make changes to the Tories’ flagship Universal Credit system and housing benefit in October rather than waiting for the Smith Commission recommendation of 2017.

He said: “I have presented a paper to the Cabinet which was approved unanimously for us to work as a team and pull together a social justice action plan looking at what we can do in the immediate period, but we will also take a longer-term point of view in terms of what do we want to achieve in Scotland by 2030.

“I’m working on the welfare side, once we get these new powers, to make our system as fair as possible and to undo some of the worst ravages of the past five years in terms of welfare reform.”

Only 14 per cent of the total welfare budget is being devolved under the Smith Commission agreement, including benefits for disabled people and carers.

In 2017, the Scottish Government will take over responsibility for the personal independence payment (PIP), which is the successor to disability living allowance (DLA).

Neil has called on the UK Government to stop the roll-out of PIP after uncovering gaping holes in the system which he claims must be ironed out before it is introduced.

He also criticised the new Universal Credit system which is being piloted in Inverness after being shocked by a number of horror stories from those on the pilot scheme.

Neil said: “Firstly, I have asked the UK Government to stop the roll-out of PIP because we don’t believe it’s being done properly and we also are also very much opposed to the 20 per cent cut in the budget they are planning for PIP.

“These are the most vulnerable people in our society who are unable to work because of disability and they are cutting the budget, so what we want to do is look at how we can do things better for them.

“Secondly, the Universal Credit which is being rolled out has been a shambles and a lot of claims are being made by the UK Government about the success for the pilots, but when you talk to people who have been on universal benefit it has been anything but a success.

“I went up to Inverness two or three weeks ago and I spoke to a group of people who have been involved in this pilot whose families had been left only being able to afford beans on toast for their Christmas dinner because of Universal Credit.

“There was a five-week gap between coming off Jobseeker’s Allowance and going on to Universal Credit so they had no money for five weeks.

“Some of them asked for an advance and the maximum they were allowed was £150. They were told they could repay the £150 advance at £30 a time for the next five months. In fact, they forced them to pay the entire amount back upfront off their first payment.

“A lot of them have ended up in rent arrears for the first time in their lives because of the cruel way in which Universal Credit has been piloted and implemented.

“They are then told they have got to spend 35 hours a week on a computer looking for a job. If they only spend 34.5 hours they get sanctioned which means they’ve got no money coming in. The whole thing is not just shambolic but cruel to the people affected by this.

“The UK Government is intending to roll this out and again we have got some flexibility, but not much. We have asked them to stop the roll-out until all these problems are addressed.”

Neil will also abolish the bedroom tax completely – which needs legislation – when powers are devolved but he wants powers to change the system so landlords get housing benefit paid to them, rather than the tenants, transferred immediately.

He said: “The minute we get control and powers over that, we are going to do three things.

“Number one, we are going to abolish the bedroom tax completely because we are spending £50 million of Scottish Government money mitigating the impact of this Westminster policy and that money could be better spent helping folk in trouble.

“The other thing we are going to do is change back to the old system whereby the rent element of the housing benefit was paid to the landlord because paying it to the tenants hasn’t worked.

“The tenants want it paid directly to the landlord because what’s happening is a lot of them are getting into debt because they’ve got other priorities and they’re not paying the rent and then putting themselves in danger of getting evicted.

“In terms of paying the rent to the landlord, we have asked for that to be transferred now under a Section 30 order and that could mean that by October we could have that power if the UK

Government would agree. So far they haven’t.

“The other flexibility we have asked for as a matter of urgency is because, under Universal Credit, you get paid monthly. Folk find it difficult to last from one month to another. It is too long a period when you are living hand to mouth.

“By the end of the month they are literally starving because they are not used to it and it is so little money anyway. Changing this doesn’t put any more money in their pocket but it helps them manage on a week-to-week basis.

“If the political will exists in London we could be doing that by October, but they are refusing to give us those flexibilities at the moment any quicker than is recommended under Smith, which tells you a lot about the real lack of enthusiasm for devolution.”