Neil promises more help for jobless under independence

Unemployed Scots could receive higher benefits and not be forced into the first job that comes along under independence, an SNP minister has claimed.

Health Secretary Alex Neil said an independent Scotland would adopt an approach to unemployment similar to Denmark.

Mr Neil said the plan would be to offer people on the dole more training and higher “support benefit” to allow them to find a better job.

The comments have angered critics who claim the SNP plan to “abandon people to a life on benefits rather than making work pay” under independence.

But Mr Neil, speaking at a Scottish government public meeting in Glasgow last week, said the Danes had found it “pays back in spades to spend the money making sure people get into the right jobs in the first place”.

He said: “In an independent Scotland, we would be taking an approach much more akin to the Danish approach.

“Why their policy works better than ours is because when someone becomes unemployed they give a much higher level of support benefit and the result is because when people are unemployed they get offers of training and retraining.”

Mr Neil also argued there was a snobbery in this country towards people learning a trade instead of going to university and revealed his own son had retrained and set up as a plasterer having quit his job with a bank.

Scottish Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said: “The SNP have absolutely no credibility when it comes to welfare issues.

“They have yet to give any real detail of how they would pay for welfare and pensions under independence.”