To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on mitigating any United Kingdom Government reductions to UK-wide benefits since 2019. (S6O-03679)

Since 2019, we have invested £750 million mitigating the impacts of UK Government policies such as the harmful bedroom tax and benefit cap, as well as shortfalls in local housing allowance rates. That includes almost £134 million this year through activities such as the discretionary housing payments and the Scottish welfare fund. That money could fund around 2,000 teachers or band 5 nurses each year, or it could fund further ambitious anti-poverty measures such as our game-changing Scottish child payment.

That brings home the costs of being in the union and under the UK economy.

I ask the cabinet secretary to focus on the bedroom tax, or spare-room tax, which we mitigate. Can she tell me how many homes are helped by the Scottish Government paying it, so that households do not have to meet it themselves?

Christine Grahame raises a very important point. It might, perhaps, be assumed that the bedroom tax has been scrapped, but it was not scrapped under the previous Conservative Government, and there have certainly been no announcements that Labour will do anything like taking such a measure.

We remain committed to mitigating the bedroom tax in full. That helps 92,000 households in Scotland to sustain their tenancies, which is an important aspect of our anti-poverty and housing policies.