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25 November 2020

(S5O-04788) Covid-19 (Support for Further and Higher Education Students)

4. Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Government what financial and mental health support has been made available to students in further and higher education who have been negatively impacted by Covid-19. (S5O-04788)

The Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science (Richard Lochhead): Eligible students in further and higher education have continued to access bursary, grant and loan payments throughout the pandemic. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government provided emergency funding of £5 million to support students and early access to £11.4 million of higher education discretionary funds. In addition, £2 million was brought forward for further education students by the Scottish Funding Council. I also announced a digital inclusion fund of £5 million to support access to digital equipment and to tackle digital poverty.

Finally, we are investing a further £3.645 million to support our existing commitment to introduce more than 80 additional counsellors in colleges and universities, and I announced additional funding of £1.32 million to help students deal with the mental health impacts of Covid-19.

Stewart Stevenson: I thank the Scottish Government for the support that the minister has just delineated. What discussions has he had with the university and college sector about the provision of support to students, particularly those from low-income backgrounds? The minister referred to the digital inclusion initiative. How helpful has the initiative been to that part of the student community? Is there access to the basic necessities of life, such as food deliveries, and are there specific steps that might help to ensure that students do not feel isolated?

Richard Lochhead: The member asked a variety of questions, but I will try to answer quickly.

Our universities and colleges have an obligation to ensure that welfare support and support with supplies are available for any student who is self-isolating in halls of residence and for other students of whom the institutions are aware. That support has now been taken forward and, as the member knows, institutions are making a huge effort to support students.

On the digital inclusion fund, it has been heartening to see the photos on social media of our colleges and universities with rooms full of laptops that they are distributing to students in need and others. That shows that the funding from the Scottish Government—as well as funding from the institutions, which they are using for that purpose—has been put to good use.

With regard to wider support, I know that 3,500 students have tapped into the £11.4 million funding for support that I mentioned in my initial answer. Those will be students in need, who fit the criteria for that fund. Another 1,500 students have successfully applied to the other funds that were already available.

12 November 2020

First Minister's Questions: United Kingdom Government Climate Change Champion

Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP): The United Nations brings its climate change conference to Glasgow next year. Does it not undermine prospects for its success that Boris Johnson has appointed as his Government’s climate change champion a pro-fracking Tory member of Parliament who has campaigned against wind farms?

The First Minister (Nicola Sturgeon): I think that the appointment of the climate change champion will have raised some eyebrows for the reasons that Stewart Stevenson sets out. Consistent with our ambition to become net zero, we would have to oppose fracking and support wind power. That is important.

Obviously, I wish anybody who is in that position well. I want to see them succeed, and we look forward to working with the United Kingdom Government. However, all of us—and I include the Scottish Government very much in this—as we get towards the 26th conference of the parties, or COP26, which will happen at this time next year, will have to be judged not just on our words about climate change but on our actions. Boris Johnson should remember that as well.

5 November 2020

(S5O-04725) Covid-19 (Welfare Funding)

5. Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Government what welfare funding is being made available to support people facing financial hardship as a result of Covid-19. (S5O-04725)

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People (Shirley-Anne Somerville): We have provided a £350 million funding package to ensure support for people and communities that are most in need. We have significantly increased the Scottish welfare fund and we have targeted help with housing costs, including through increasing our discretionary housing payment fund and introducing a tenant hardship fund.

In recognition of the additional pressures that unpaid carers have been under, we made an additional carer’s allowance supplement payment in June, which means that over the financial year, eligible carers can get £690 more than carers in the rest of the United Kingdom.

In addition, we have introduced the £500 self-isolation support grant for workers on low-income benefits who risk losing income because they have to self-isolate.

Stewart Stevenson: The cabinet secretary referred to the United Kingdom Government’s universal credit uplift—but, of course, that ends in April. Does the cabinet secretary agree that the hardship of families who are affected by its ending should lead to a pile on the doorstep of the Westminster Government for it to deal with, while the Scottish Government does what it can to help struggling families?

Shirley-Anne Somerville: I completely agree with Stewart Stevenson’s assessment. As I said in my earlier remarks, we have urged the United Kingdom Government to make that £20 uplift permanent and, which is important, to extend it to legacy benefits. That was needed before the pandemic and is, certainly, needed more urgently now. We need an immediate announcement, so that people do not face uncertainty about whether that vital money will be removed from them in a few months.

Modelling by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation indicates that failure to make the uplift permanent will result in 700,000 more people across the UK being pushed into poverty, so the UK Government must do the right thing and ensure that social security support is sufficient to support people during and beyond the pandemic.

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