Home Rule campaign: £6bn of welfare spend should be devolved

The call coincides with the publication of a new report commissioned by the Scottish Government on the Coalition's welfare reforms, which found they are failing to help people into work.

It also emerged yesterday that 65 charities used submissions to the Smith Commission on devolution to call for Holyrood to have greater control over welfare.

They included Barnardo's, Shelter, Citizens Advice Scotland, Scottish Women's Aid, Children 1st, Money Advice Scotland and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.

The most frequent call was to devolve working-age benefits, rather than pensions, to help improve services.

The Campaign for Scottish Home Rule argues that although the main aim of welfare spending - to alleviate poverty - is central to Holyrood, responsibility for delivering it is split between Holyrood and Westminster, meaning policy "can end up being unfocused and inefficient". For instance, social inclusion and housing are devolved, but not the associated benefits.

The report concludes: "The ability of Holyrood to address the problem is seriously hampered because the main levers by which to address it are held by Westminster - the Scottish Government can do little more than tinker around the edges."

Last year, around £14.4 billion was spent in 18 non-pension benefits in Scotland.

The campaign says that "as a minimum" 10 of these, worth more than £6bn, should be devolved, including Income Support, Winter Fuel Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Attendance Allowance. It adds that if income tax is fully devolved, then Child Benefit, which is linked to income, should also be devolved.

The campaign, which was launched last week, says the 1998 Scotland Act which underpins devolution should now be re-opened to rewrite the list of powers which were reserved to the UK Parliament.

It says there should be a presumption in favour of Holyrood having responsibility for all aspects of life and a "burden of proof" on those who want powers to remain at Westminster.

However, opening up Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act, which specifies which powers are reserved, could also create an opportunity for meddling by MPs hostile to more Scottish devolution.

Steering group chairman Ben Thomson said: "Many other poverty alleviation tools lie at Holyrood, and by bringing all of them together at Holyrood we can move towards a more focused and efficient policy platform. Poverty is increasing in Scotland and it is estimated 100,000 more children will be in poverty by 2020. It's time Scotland had the tools to tackle it properly."

The Scottish Government-commissioned research found multiple shortcomings in the current system. Jobseekers have reported receiving inadequate help from Jobcentre Plus and the Work Programme and, despite most people wanting to work, childcare, illness and skills proved major obstacles.

Sanctions and tougher rules on accessing benefits were found to be poor incentives to finding work, while help with health and social care had a more positive effect.

The research, by the Employment Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University and Stirling University, was based on interviews with people looking for work.

It urged a shake-up of childcare provision as people were often expected to work "non standard hours". Just over 500,000 people received one of the main working-age benefits in Scotland last year.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "The people in this study show that the changes to the current system are not achieving what they set out to do. They are not helping people without work find jobs, and not making people with work better off in any real sense.

"The only way to increase ­employment is to address the ­barriers stopping people from ­working - that means better childcare, more training and help with health problems."