LABOUR have refused to rule out making cuts to devolved benefits if the party wins power at next May’s Holyrood elections.
Social security spokesperson Paul O’Kane echoed Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar in saying that the Scottish Child Payment, which was introduced by the SNP, would remain if Labour forms the next Scottish government, saying the benefit was “here to stay”.
But with warnings the funding gap for Scotland’s benefits system will be £1.3 billion in 2025-26 and is rising, the Labour MSP said if he was the next social justice secretary at Holyrood he would “need to look at everything in the round”.
Asked specifically if a Scottish Labour government would seek to cut any devolved benefits, the MSP said: “We need to look at them in the round.”
He added if a Labour government could “fix other bits of the system” around the NHS and employability support “then I think we can look to make savings within the current envelope”.
O’Kane continued: “I want to make quite clear that we want to protect social security that works really well and supports people.
“But I do think we need to have a grown-up conversation and look in the round at Social Security Scotland.”
The Scottish Fiscal Commission has already forecast that spending on social security in Scotland is to rise from £6.9bn in 2025-26 to £8.8bn in 2029-30.
The cost of the benefits exceeds the cash the Scottish Government receives from Westminster for this, with the gap rising from £0.9bn in 2023-34 to £1.3bn in 2025-26.
O’Kane said: “I hold the view if I was coming in as cabinet secretary I would need to look at everything in the round, I need to be really clear about that, and really clear about are these payments working, can they work better and can we make efficiencies in the system.”
His comments came as he spoke at a fringe event at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow.
At the event, organised by the Centre for Public Policy, O’Kane said the current devolved benefits system “often feels a bit piecemeal sometimes, it feels a bit disjointed”.
Highlighting that the bill for the adult disability payment – brought in by the Scottish Government to replace the personal independence payment – was “continuing to rise quite clearly”, he said a Labour government would “have to start to interrogate some of that”.
He also said there were “challenges” within Social Security Scotland – the body which pays out Scottish benefits – “particularly around the wait times”, adding that these would also be looked at.
