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Fairness
A Fairer Scotland
Giving everyone the support they need to get on, while protecting the most vulnerable in society and tackling poverty, is crucial to delivering a fairer society. Our vision is to build a fairer Scotland where everyone feels valued and we properly support our most vulnerable people.
A Fairer Scotland
Giving everyone the support they need to get on, while protecting the most vulnerable in society and tackling poverty, is crucial to delivering a fairer society.
Our vision is to build a fairer Scotland where everyone feels valued and we properly support our most vulnerable people.
While we don’t have the full powers and economic levers that we would want to make a difference to people’s lives, we will always use the powers we do have to drive the change we want to see in our society.
The UK government’s actions on welfare have attacked some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society. The social security powers being devolved to the Scottish Parliament are limited, but they do give us the opportunity to take a different approach.
We will create a Scottish Social Security Agency, with fairness and dignity at its core. We will support Scotland’s carers, scrap the Bedroom Tax and ensure disability benefits remain universal.
By further increasing free early learning and childcare, we will help parents into work, support children during their vital early years and help them reach their full potential.
By promoting the Living Wage and the principles of Fair Work, we can ensure that work pays and individuals are valued.
Increasing levels of poverty and inequality are a clear sign that the economic and social policies of the UK Government are failing Scotland. We will continue to call for the Scottish Parliament to have full control over all social security benefits, so that we can deliver a system that is tailored to the needs of all the people of Scotland.
Achievements
More than 80 per cent of Scots are now paid the Living Wage of £8.25 an hour.
In 2011, we became the first government in the UK to pay the Living Wage to our staff.
Poverty is down. After housing costs, there were 260,000 fewer people in poverty in 2014 than there were in 2000.
We have invested £90 million to ensure that no-one in Scotland has to pay the Bedroom Tax, protecting up to 72,000 households from the threat of eviction or becoming homeless.
Over half a million vulnerable households in Scotland – including over 200,000 pensioners and 86,000 single parents – have been protected from UK Government cuts to Council Tax support.
Almost 3,000 disabled people are being supported through the Independent Living Fund Scotland, which we set up after the UK Government scrapped its support.