NEW powers to top up the state pension and other UK welfare payments will be handed to the Scottish Government if Labour wins the General Election, Jim Murphy will announce today.
The Scottish Labour leader will outline plans to hand Holyrood greater control over welfare than was agreed by the parties during last year's Smith Commission talks.
Under the proposals, which will form part of Scottish Labour's election manifesto, Holyrood will gain full powers to create new benefits or top up existing UK entitlements.
Under the Smith agreement, Holyrood stands to gain welfare powers in devolved areas only.
Labour's plan would allow Scottish ministers to raise - but now lower - the state pension, child benefit and other payments.
The Scottish Government would also take full control over housing benefit and its £1.8billion budget, rather than the limited power to vary payment timings recommended by the Smith Commission.
The move would mean disentangling housing benefit from the new Universal Credit, which rolls several payments into one.
The measures would be included in Labour's proposed Home Rule Bill and introduced at Westminster within 100 days of a Labour election victory on May 7.
Mr Murphy will make the announcement in a speech in Edinburgh, when he will be joined by Gordon Brown, the chief architect of the devolution "Vow" made jointly by the pro-UK parties days before the referendum.
The Scottish Labour leader will describe his plan as the "Vow Plus" and claim it will make Holyrood the most powerful devolved parliament in the world.
He will say: "Scottish Labour's commitment to delivering the Vow is absolute.
"However delivering the Vow is a starting point not an end point for Scottish Labour.
"Smith was a consensus between five parties. A Labour approach to powers, and to the use of powers, will reflect our different values and different ambitions for Scotland."
Mr Brown will say: "Within 100 days a Labour Government will introduce a bill not just to implement the Vow and the Smith Agreement but that we will go further than The Vow and further than Smith."
Labour's proposed Home Rule Bill will also ensure the Work Programme, the UK Government's controversial initiative to help the unemployed, will be devolved to local authorities in Scotland, Mr Murphy will say.
The pledge comes as the leader of Scotland's largest local authority steps up pressure on the Scottish Government to hand councils control over the Work Programme when UK contracts comes to an end.
Glasgow council leader Gordon Matheson has written to the Scottish Government requesting formal talks on developing a replacement for the scheme that could be delivered by the city.
In a letter to Roseanna Cunningham, the Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training, he said: "There is a compelling case for the administration of the devolved Work Programme to be delivered locally by government and city-regions."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article