Capability Scotland's reaction to 2008 budget

25/03/2008

The 2008 budget report announced in March did not make many specific references to disability.  However, Capability Scotland is encouraged by the Government’s commitment to reducing child poverty and tackling fuel poverty.  We hope that some of the measures outlined by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, will go some way to providing a better standard of living for Scotland’s disabled children and their families.

The Chancellor admitted that the Government’s target of halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it by 2020 is ‘ambitious” (a series of recent publications have indicated Ministers are slipping behind on the target).  However, the budget committed an extra £765m this year and £950m next year aimed at helping 250,000 of the poorest children and families.

Specific measures unveiled by the Chancellor include:

• From April, 2009, child benefit will be increased to £20 a week. This increase is a year earlier than planned.

• Taken together with changes to child tax credit, the Government believes this will mean £17 a week more for poor families with one child.  Mr. Darling indicated that this measure alone would help move 100,000 children out of extreme poverty.

•  A family with two children earning up to £28,000 a year will be £130 a year better off under changes to the Child Tax Credit system designed to help those on medium incomes.

• A further £125m will be spent over the next three years to help families.  Mr. Darling indicated that this will be targeted at those most in need and hardest to reach.

• On Fuel Poverty, the Government want to see five million customers using pre-paid meters get a "better deal". Energy companies were told they should be spending £150m on social tariffs instead of the £50m they currently allocated.

The Chancellor also confirmed that from April 2010, all long-term recipients of incapacity benefit will attend work capacity programmes.  From this autumn incapacity benefit will be renamed as the employment and support allowance, and all new claimants must complete an assessment considering their capability to work.  In his budget Alistair Darling announced  that all current incapacity benefit claimants would have to take this test from April 2010.

Reacting to the budget, Capability Scotland’s Campaigns, Parliamentary and Policy Manager, Faye Gatenby, commented: “Overall, the level of spending commitment to reducing child poverty and tackling fuel poverty is encouraging, particularly given the very limited resources that the budget was handing out in general.  The confirmation that all incapacity benefit recipients will have to attend work capability assessments from 2010 doesn't represent a progressive approach to helping people into employment that will actually benefit a lot of disabled people, but it was expected.”

Scotland is set to receive an extra £26 million as a result of spending increases announced in the budget.   The money comes from the Barnett Formula, the mechanism which automatically gives Scotland a share of public spending increases by Whitehall departments.  It is up to Scottish Ministers to decide how this additional resource will be used.

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