When the SNP first assumed office in 2007, creating a wealthier and fairer Scotland became one of the Scottish Government's five core strategic objectives. Its main aim was to support wealth generation and ‘allow more people to share fairly in that wealth’ through improved employment opportunities and effective public service delivery (Scottish Government 2016a). The ‘fairness’ agenda has increased in significance and profile since Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister. Her programme for government included the core commitment ‘to use new powers to improve the welfare system, mitigating some of the worst impacts of the UK Government's cuts’ (Scottish Government 2015c). The link back to the UK social security system reveals both the political opportunity and institutional complexity created by the partial devolution of social security contained within the Scotland Act (2016).

The Scottish Parliament already controls substantial areas of the welfare state. Legislative and executive competence over health, housing, education and social care were all transferred as part of the original devolution settlement. But for Scotland, as for Wales, social security remained reserved to Westminster, and although it was devolved in Northern Ireland, the parity principle and corresponding Treasury subvention was expected to ensure a single social security and benefits system for citizens across the UK. Devolution increased differences in the UK welfare state, but the social security system remained largely intact. By 2012, this integrated system had begun to unravel in the context of controversial UK welfare reforms, amid growing demands for distinctive welfare approaches across the UK's nations and regions. The Scottish independence referendum was set against the backdrop of debates over the capacity of UK welfare to reflect social solidarity and provide adequate social protection. In response to the welfare reforms and cuts to social security imposed by the UK Government, pro-independence campaigners argued that solidarity could best be preserved and reinforced if the Scottish Government had full powers to enable them to develop a Nordic-style welfare system. The Scottish Government had already introduced policies to mitigate some of the effects of welfare cuts, most notably in the introduction and expansion of discretionary housing payments to counteract the infamous ‘bedroom tax’.