Discretionary Housing Payments - creating a Scottish scheme: equality impact assessment

Key Findings

Age

‘Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation’ – Children and young people make up the largest portion of those in poverty and also those impacted by the benefit cap in Scotland. Although any DHP payments will go directly to parents and carers, this should have a positive impact on the children and young people in the household. In addition to this, young parents and young mothers more specifically are more likely to be in vulnerable situations financially and the policy will also help them. The bedroom tax only affects individuals of working age. Individuals of pension age are exempt. Therefore, mitigating bedroom tax means all age groups receive equal housing support through the benefit system.

‘Advancing equality of opportunity’ - As above, this policy will have positive impacts on children and young people. A larger household income can help them to live more comfortably, eat more healthily and have better outcomes in education, which in-turn should advance equality of opportunities in life.

‘Promoting good relations among and between different age groups’ - The policy equalises the treatment of working-age and pension-age individuals in relation to bedroom tax. Among those classed as working age, the policy change is open to everyone who is entitled to a DHP and is not intended or expected to directly or indirectly impact on the interactions among and between different age groups.

Disability

‘Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, advancing equality of opportunity and promoting good relations among and between disabled and non-disabled people’ - The main changes in the policy are surrounding the benefit cap and the bedroom tax. People with disabilities are mostly exempt from both of these. Therefore, we do not expect that the policy changes will have any significant further impact (positive or negative) on people with disabilities, beyond that of the currently existing scheme. The scheme will continue to provide a safety net in such cases as where an individual needs an extra bedroom but does not meet the DWP qualification criteria.

Sex

‘Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation’ – 74% of the families impacted by the benefit cap are lone parents and women make up 92% of lone parents in Scotland, therefore the benefit cap disproportionately affects single mothers with children. This is especially the case if the women are homeless or victims of domestic violence and may find it difficult to avoid the cap by moving home, budgeting or going into employment. Creating a Scottish DHP scheme allows LAs to better support people hit by the benefit cap. Bedroom tax mitigation supports tenants of social housing, the majority of which are women (54% in 2017).

‘Advancing equality of opportunity’ – as women are the hardest hit by UK welfare reforms such as the benefit cap, mitigating these reforms by expanding the scope of what DHPs can do will allow women to better support their families by increasing their household income. It may also financially allow them to get into employment if they are not already, when they are ready to do so.

‘Promoting good relations among and between men and women’ - The policy change is open to everyone and is not intended or expected to directly or indirectly impact on the interactions of relations between men and women.

Pregnancy and Maternity

‘Eliminating unlawful discrimination’ – Families with a new child are more likely to enter poverty and the birth of a new baby can result in those who are close to the poverty line falling below. This policy may help keep families with young children above the poverty line.

‘Advancing equality of opportunity’ – Young mothers and their children are more likely to experience social adversity, stigmatisation and disengagement with education or employment. Further mitigating previous UK Government welfare changes and supporting people through DHPs will provide these vulnerable families with more money, which could help in reversing these negative impacts of poverty, advancing their equality of opportunities in life.

‘Promoting good relations’ - The policy change is open to everyone who is entitled to a DHP and is not intended or expected to directly or indirectly impact on promoting good relations in pregnancy and maternity.

Gender reassignment

‘Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, advancing equality of opportunity and promoting good relations’ – This policy does not have a particular focus on individuals who have or are undergoing gender reassignment so is unlikely to have any impact.

Sexual orientation

‘Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, advancing equality of opportunity and promoting good relations’ – This policy does not have a particular focus on sexual orientation so is unlikely to have any impact.

Race

‘Eliminating unlawful discrimination’ – Evidence showed that some minority ethnic groups have a lower acceptance rate for social security in Scotland. The Scottish DHP scheme removes the requirement for a formal application and financial assessment for the mitigations Scottish Ministers wish to see applied universally. Doing so should make payments more routine and reduce the chance of discrimination in the process.

‘Advancing equality of opportunity’ – We hope that in giving LAs the chance to be part of the guidance development and working with third sector organisations, they will be able to serve their communities better. This could include helping to spread awareness of DHPs to hard-to-reach groups such as minority ethnic communities where there is sometimes a lack of awareness regarding benefits they are entitled to as well as cultural and/or language barriers when applying.

‘Promoting good race relations’ - The policy change is open to everyone who is entitled to a DHP and is not intended or expected to impact directly or indirectly on promoting good race relations.

Religion of belief

‘Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, advancing equality of opportunity and promoting good relations’ - This policy does not have a particular focus on religion or belief so is unlikely to have any impact.

Marriage and Civil Partnership

‘Eliminating unlawful discrimination’ – N/A - Marriage and Civil Partnership only needs to be evaluated if the policy relates to employment or HR, this does not.

When carrying out the research for the EqIA it became apparent that there is a lack of data when it comes to the benefit cap and sexual orientation, religion and beliefs and gender reassignment. However, we do not believe that any further research is required as should these individuals fall under any of the priority family types – mainly large families with lone parents – then the policy will be beneficial to them.