IT is part of our society’s social contract that it seeks to support those of us who need its help. The taxes the majority of us contribute ensure that we can operate a safety net for others who have fallen on hard times, or for our friends and neighbours who need support to create a level playing field. It’s our way as a society of reaching out a helping hand of solidarity to those who need our assistance to enable them to move on with their lives.

But over our recent history, this social cohesion, the essence of the social contract between citizens and their state, has been steadily eroded. Instead of championing this central pillar of the welfare state as a positive part of our society, successive Westminster governments, aided by their friends in the right-wing press, have chipped away at the structures and institutions that have provided this vital support.

We now live in a society that labels as “scroungers” those people and families who claim their entitlement. It doesn’t just create a split between the deserving and the underserving poor, it argues that essential payments are instead “benefits”, added extras like a free gym membership or a discounts card provided by your employer.

It has now got to the stage that the current shower of Tory ministers would rather legislate to deprive people with a mental illness or disability of the support payments they need to be able to leave the house than make the financial payments the current law demands.

My concern is that Westminster has only just started with its work to undo decades of social progress. When Philip Hammond speculates that he can envisage a post-Brexit UK with a deregulated, low-tax economy like Singapore’s, what he fails to mention is the enormous social cost of such a realignment.

So when Sir John Major, hardly a doyen of the left, worries out loud that a hard Brexit presents a clear and present danger to our welfare state, the situation must be very serious indeed.

This is not only an abject political failure, but a failure to uphold the values that have underpinned our society for generations.

That’s why it’s so important that, now that we have limited powers to forge a new social security system for Scotland, we do so from a position of principle. We shouldn’t simply tinker around the edges of the UK’s failing system – this can’t be a “make do and mend” approach.

We must build this new Scottish system around values of dignity and respect. And this should be achieved working hand in hand with those people who have the best knowledge and understanding of the challenges that we want to overcome, and the systems and processes we want to improve.

While the Tories are committed to demonising those on the margins of Scottish society, I stand with Jeane Freeman and the rest of the Scottish Government who want to welcome those who are currently in this system to the top table so we can work together to map out a uniquely Scottish solution.

The SNP in government plans to seek the views of applicants on how to make the system more accessible. It wants to understand how to simplify the process in order to make it more inclusive and to ensure that everyone who requires support can access what they need, and where and when they need it. This new social security system won’t be delivered overnight, but this thoughtful plan means that it stands a better chance of providing a durable, flexible and inclusive approach for years to come.

People in Scotland are increasingly faced with a choice between two futures. We can continue with a Tory-led approach which demonises the poor and vulnerable, or forge a new path where we put those in need, our friends and neighbours, at the centre of our plans for the future.

The plans we’re currently developing will cover 11 new benefits, which will pay out almost £3 billion a year to 1.4 million people across Scotland.

It’s a good start, and will make a positive difference to many. But the work is not yet done. These firm foundations will stand us in good stead when the time comes for Scotland to take control of our own future and develop Scottish solutions to Scottish problems once again.

“Nothing about us, without us, is for us!” has been a familiar refrain to those working in anti-poverty campaigns and against disability discrimination over the years.

I’m proud that it’s this SNP Government in Scotland that is embedding this principle in developing Scotland’s emergent social security system.