{"id":728629,"date":"2026-01-29T13:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728629\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:17:13","slug":"first-ministers-questions-swinney-insists-scotlands-benefits-costs-are-sustainable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728629\/","title":{"rendered":"First Minister&#8217;s Questions: Swinney insists Scotland&#8217;s benefits costs are sustainable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-to2z4d-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Analysis: Clear dividing lines between SNP and Tories over welfarepublished at 12:20 GMT<\/p>\n<p>12:20 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-3u1n9h-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/994cb943-876d-4c8c-b036-13455370ab81.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/><strong>Andrew Kerr<\/strong><br \/>BBC Scotland political correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Conservative leader&#8217;s attack line was well-trailed today.   <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Russell Findlay had set out his party&#8217;s welfare policy ahead of<br \/>\nthe Holyrood election at a press conference yesterday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Under the banner of &#8220;Common sense for a change&#8221;, Mr<br \/>\nFindlay highlighted the key planks which he says would save taxpayers \u00a31bn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"> Those included a pledge to introduce a two-child cap for the<br \/>\nScottish Child Payment, firming up assessments for those receiving the Adult<br \/>\nDisability Payment for mental health reasons and ending the so-called \u2018tick-box<br \/>\nculture\u2019 when it comes to claimants looking to continue receiving benefits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">So today in parliament, Mr Findlay did say the safety net was<br \/>\nvalued &#8211; but warned the &#8220;towering&#8221; benefits bill now stands at \u00a37bn &#8211;<br \/>\nwith the leader saying benefits spending was &#8220;out of control, unfair,<br \/>\nunaffordable and unsustainable&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But this attack went straight to what the first minister called<br \/>\nthe &#8220;mission of his government&#8221;, to support the vulnerable and to<br \/>\nlift children out of poverty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">John Swinney was fairly ferocious in his response, saying Mr<br \/>\nFindlay had a hostile attitude to the vulnerable in society and didn&#8217;t deign to<br \/>\n&#8220;get in the gutter&#8221; with the Conservative leader.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"> The Tory leader hopes he&#8217;ll appeal to hard-working Scots who<br \/>\nthinks the benefits bill is out of control.  A clear dividing line between<br \/>\nthe two &#8211; and also with Reform UK, as they say they don&#8217;t want to cut benefits.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Analysis: Clear dividing lines between SNP and Tories over welfarepublished at 12:20 GMT 12:20 GMT Andrew KerrBBC Scotland&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-728629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115978583832775532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}