Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to make public a report examining welfare provision in an independent Scotland.
In January Ms Sturgeon announced that an expert group was to examine the potential structure for the welfare system if Scotland left the rest of the UK.
The resulting report has not yet been published.
Shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran demanded that the report be published as she addressed the Money Advice Scotland conference in Glasgow.
She also argued that the report should address three key post-independence welfare questions.
Social security “affects us all”, she said. “We have to take an approach that asks what’s best for people.
“In January Nicola Sturgeon promised the prospect of a fairer welfare system that ‘reflects Scottish values’ and she described the welfare system as an ‘immediate priority for change’ in an independent Scotland.
“She promised a panel of experts would provide a report by May about what we could expect from the welfare state in an independent Scotland.
“Nicola Sturgeon should publish her report. Because with such significant challenges facing us and with so many individuals and families struggling, we cannot continue to afford a Scotland on pause with the simplistic hope that everything will be OK with independence.”
The report needs to address how the benefits system in an independent Scotland would be “disentangled from the UK system” and if this would result in changes to benefits.
A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said the group’s report will be published before the end of this month.