The Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2023: business and regulatory impact assessment

Consultation

Within Government

Consultation in relation to the amended regulations has included colleagues from the Directorate for Tackling Child Poverty and Social Justice and from Social Security Scotland. Input from analytical colleagues has helped us understand the likely numbers of individuals who will be affected by the changes we are making and the impact on benefit expenditure. Input from Social Security Scotland has helped us to understand how the policy intent can be met and how the changes will be implemented.

External Stakeholders

There has been policy engagement with stakeholders throughout the development of BSF and since launch. We have also held a number of meetings with our Five Family Payments Reference Group which is made up of a number of key stakeholders with an interest in the policy area, including Child Poverty Action Group, Citizens Advice Scotland, Engender and a number of other groups. At our meeting in March 2023, we provided the Five Family Payments Reference Group with an overview of our proposed changes and following this we met separately with some of the individual members.

The overall feedback we received was positive. Removal of the income thresholds was welcomed by stakeholders and considered to be particularly helpful for people who do seasonal work, have variable incomes or are on flexible contracts. It was noted that the existing threshold for Universal Credit (UC) can prevent parents accepting work that is paid at the real Living Wage. A risk was also highlighted that people who currently lose entitlement due to breaching the income thresholds (and who do not fall below the threshold within 12 weeks of losing their entitlement) might not reclaim when their income reduces again, resulting in individuals not receiving the support they are entitled to. Providing a further eight weeks entitlement to BSF when entitlement to Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit, Income Support, Income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit or Housing Benefit ends was also viewed positively and considered to be especially helpful when issues arise with qualifying benefits which can take some time to resolve. Changes to improve access to BSF for young parents were also welcomed and it was anticipated that they would help improve uptake. Making Working Tax Credit (WTC) a qualifying benefit in its own right was viewed as particularly positive for some pregnant persons and also for some carers who are not responsible for the child for Child Tax Credit (CTC) purposes, e.g. some kinship carers. In general, further aligning eligibility for BSF with BSG and SCP was also received positively as it was acknowledged that the differences in eligibility can be confusing for some parents.

We consulted with island stakeholders as part of the Islands Community Impact Assessment process and some of the feedback raised by islands stakeholders was relevant to this impact assessment. They noted that BSF helps to address stigma and improve the health and wellbeing of pregnant persons and children. They also felt that BSF could contribute to better educational outcomes. They welcomed the policy changes which will result in BSF being more accessible for low income families. However, they also cautioned that by allowing the individual who a pregnant person or partner of a pregnant person is dependent upon to be eligible to receive BSF, the independence of the young person could be adversely affected and it could make them vulnerable to abuse from coercive grandparents. To mitigate against the risk described above, the regulations ensure that an application from the pregnant person will always take precedence over applications from other entitled individuals. Where anyone other than the pregnant person is receiving BSF and an application from the pregnant person is received, Social Security Scotland will end the existing claim and pay the pregnant person instead. Where multiple applications are received in relation to a pregnancy but no application is made by the pregnant person themselves, the amendment regulations will provide Scottish Ministers with the power to decide who should be awarded BSF, having regard to the circumstances of the pregnant person. Furthermore, when either the partner of the pregnant person or the individual that the pregnant person is dependent upon or the partner of that individual is being paid BSF, the regulations state that they are only entitled if they are using BSF for the benefit of the pregnant person. If it is established that they are not using BSF for the benefit of the pregnant person, they are not eligible to receive BSF.

We have also engaged with the Scottish Women’s Convention, Scottish Women’s Aid, Inclusion Scotland, First Steps Nutrition Trust and Nourish Scotland. Overall, the feedback received was that the changes being made are very positive and progressive. Widening eligibility by removing the income thresholds was particularly welcomed. Providing a further eight weeks entitlement to BSF when entitlement to Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit, Income Support, Income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit or Housing Benefit ends was specifically highlighted as a good example of how to treat individuals well. Putting it beyond doubt that people who might otherwise have difficulty accessing their entitlement can be paid in a way other than the prepaid card was seen to be very helpful.

We have consulted with the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) who have estimated that removing the income thresholds will result in the additional expenditure set out in Table 1 below.

Business

Private businesses have not been consulted directly as it is expected that the amendments to BSF regulations will not have a negative impact on their interests.