Radical Welfare Benefits Blog

I n all of the discussion of pensions, the economy, or why can't Scotland be like <insert current favourite economy> few people want to talk about probably the biggest long term problem in Scotland *whispers* fertility.  Just the mention of this has probably got you shifting in your seat.  'Scotland' this is a conversation we need to have.  Scotland has a problem. We've had it for some time and it's only getting worse. It's not something that is cured by independence or caused by the union, it's something much deeper and ingrained into our society, and we really need to deal with it.  Total Fertility Rate In demographics fertility is measured in a number of ways but the main statistic is the Total Fertility Rate . This is essentially the number of children each female in a society gives birth to in their lifetime.  If the TFR is at or around 2.1 this is regarded as the required level of children for a population to sustain itself. That's important

I've tried.  Honestly I've tried to stay out of it.  But come on!!! I've been watching the SNP drive a coach and horses through their pensions policy (again) and I've expected myself to sit on my hands. Nope, can't do it any longer.  Now I'm not going to go into the detail on the complete mess the SNP have gotten themselves into. Kevin Hague has brilliantly captured that .  Blackford on Sky news again All I want to do is to take the latest (insane) policy from the SNP at face value, Sam Taylor of These Islands has been painstakingly following all of these twists and turns. From Blackford, to Forbes, to Sturgeon, to Blackford again and to Michelle Thompson, he's been highlighting the often contradictory messaging from the SNP.  But we've now got enough to see though all of the chaff.  The SNP policy on pensions is that pensions will be paid by the Scottish Government for all Scottish pensioners, that i ncludes all of those in payment at the moment.  So mu

  00:03 could i 00:04 welcome everybody to this meeting of the 00:05 scottish affairs select committee 00:07 as you'll probably be aware we are 00:10 conducting 00:11 a series of hearings into various 00:14 aspects of the consequences of 00:15 separation 00:17 today we're looking at the government's 00:19 scotland analysis paper 00:21 work and pensions and we've got with us 00:24 um as ever david mondale from the 00:27 scotland office and he's got a special 00:29 friend 00:30 uh with um today another special friend 00:34 uh steve webb who's dealing with 00:37 pensions she's dealing with big 00:38 questions 00:40 right i wonder if i could start off then 00:42 just by saying that asking about one of 00:44 the key arguments in the paper 00:46 is that higher social security in 00:48 scotland is more affordable 00:50 if we remain part of the united kingdom 00:52 could he just clarify 00:54 why you believe that's the case 00:57 um thank you chair so um clearly