Discretionary Housing Payments - creating a Scottish scheme: child rights and welfare impact assessment - stage 2 screening

CRWIA Stage 2 – Assessment of Impact and Compatibility

1. What evidence have you used to inform your assessment? What does it tell you about the impact on children’s rights?

The tackling child poverty priority families overview informs us of what groups of children are most impacted by poverty, and therefore may benefit most from the creation of a Scottish Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) scheme. The overview states:

• “24% of all children in Scotland are in relative poverty. Children in the priority groups are more likely than average to be in relative poverty – 38% children in lone parent families, 39% children in minority ethnic families, 28% children in families with a disabled person, 55% children in families with younger mothers, 34% children in families with a child under one, and 34% children in families with three or more children are in relative poverty. 11% of children who are in none of the priority groups are in relative poverty.”

Supreme Court judges criticised the UK Government’s benefit cap for breaching international law on the rights of children. However, the Court declined to overturn the controversial policy, leaving the issue to be settled “in the political, rather than the legal arena”. In allowing Scottish Ministers more flexibility in managing DHPs and writing the mitigation of the benefit cap into Scottish DHP guidance, the Scottish Government is attempting to reverse the negative impact of the previous UK Government’s benefit cap on the children of Scotland.

DWP StatXplore data shows that in Scotland 98% of all households hit by the benefit cap are families, and 74% are lone parent families. On average, the benefit cap takes away over £2,400 per household per year. Mitigating the benefit cap will help around 2,300 families, with over 8,900 children, meet their housing costs.

Exploring the Cost of the Pregnancy Pathway found that pregnancy brings a period of sudden increased financial pressure and sustained money worries have been reported following a birth of a baby, increasing the risk of child poverty. Families with a new child are more likely to enter poverty and the birth of a new baby can result in those who are close to the poverty line falling below it.

The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan published in 2018 highlights that households with children aged 0-4 are at high risk of poverty and the risk, is much higher when the youngest child is aged less than one year old. The accompanying Equality Impact Assessment also found that when young mothers are in work, they are more likely to earn a low income and more likely to receive social security entitlements.

2. Evidence from stakeholders/Policy Colleagues (Guidance Section 2.2)

The statutory DHP guidance document was developed in partnership with COSLA. COSLA convened a group of social-security advisers with knowledge of the DHP scheme to provide detailed advice and feedback on the operation of the scheme, and on the impacts of changing the legislative basis of the scheme.

Scottish Government colleagues from the areas of homelessness, child poverty, social security, and violence against women and girls, were consulted on the guidance to ensure it met Ministers’ aspirations for the scheme as fully as possible.

The guidance details how local authorities should operate the scheme and therefore is largely technical. However, where 3^rd sector partners with expertise have been identified, they have been consulted. In particular, Child Poverty Action Group Scotland has had input and has provided some information from their social security early warning system.

COSLA and their social security advisers were given a draft of the guidance for comment during formal consultation and revisions were made accordingly in the final draft of the guidance.

3. Evidence from children and young people (Guidance Section 2.2)

We did not choose to involve children and young people directly in the development of this proposal. Children are one step removed from the policy as it directly impacts local authorities’ administration of the scheme and parents, who are the recipients of the DHP. To be eligible for a DHP the applicant must be in receipt of housing benefit or universal credit with a housing element.

However, we know that homelessness has a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of families with children. The Scottish Government invests in DHPs in order to prevent homelessness. Shelter Scotland has commissioned research (findings due in winter 2024) to understand children’s experiences of temporary accommodation. The researchers will hear directly from children. Scottish Government officials are part of the research advisory group for this work, which will strengthen our understanding of the impact of housing precarity and homelessness for children and young people – and the importance of investment in preventative measures.