Bringing Hope, Building Futures: Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2026-2031 – annex 6: Impact of policies on child poverty

Maximising take-up of Scottish and UK benefits

We will maximise take-up of devolved and reserved benefits among low-income families, including those in priority family groups, so that eligible households receive all the financial support they are entitled to, contributing to higher household incomes and reduced child poverty.

Actions included

• Parental Employability and Financial Support campaign (New) - £0.8m
• Benefit take-up strategy (Strengthened) - £0.05m
• Explore data sharing options to support income maximisation (Continuation) – £N/A
• Explore options for a Social Security Scotland client referral pathway (New) - £N/A
• Social Security Scotland data sharing prototype (New) - £N/A

Total investment in 2026/27 - £0.85m.

Impact of actions committed

Type of impact

Maximising benefit take‑up has a direct impact on income from social security by increasing the number of eligible families receiving devolved benefits, and an indirect impact through stigma reduction, advocacy and awareness work that helps priority family groups access support. For reserved benefits, our role is indirect due to limited UK Government data and no administrative control.

Potential size

Estimated take-up rates of Scottish low income benefits for families are already high, e.g. 94% for the Scottish Child Payment in 2024/25. Latest Cumulative Impact Assessment analysis using UKMOD estimated that at current take-up rates the Scottish Child Payment reduces relative child poverty by 5 percentage points compared to a scenario where there is zero take-up.

There is some scope to increase benefit income of eligible households by maximising benefit take-up of Scottish Child Payment. However, there is wider scope to look at take-up of all benefits. The latest Scottish Government analysis using the UKMOD microsimulation model estimated that full take-up of most reserved and devolved benefits would reduce relative child poverty by around 3 percentage points. Some benefits, such as disability and carer support payments cannot be accurately modelled and were excluded.

Certainty

There is a high degree of uncertainty of impact as it is very difficult to measure the effects of any government policy on benefit take-up and subsequent increase in benefit income.

Child poverty estimates are based on internal Scottish Government modelling and analysis using UKMOD, an established open-source micro-simulation model. Scottish Government analysts produce estimates of child poverty impacts to the nearest 1%/10,000 children, due to sample size limitations in modelling. An estimated impact below 1% does not imply no impact, or that the impact on the households who are affected is negligible. These estimates contain a degree of uncertainty due to underlying survey uncertainty and are subject to change in future modelling rounds.

Priority families targeted by the actions

This policy targets families who face the greatest barriers to accessing social security, with a particular focus on seldom‑heard groups. All six priority family types intersect with seldom‑heard status and are therefore central to this work, as they are more likely to experience stigma, low awareness, system complexity and digital exclusion.

Tracking progress

Scottish Government publishes an annual report estimating take-up rates for devolved benefits, currently covering the Five Family Payments, Funeral Support Payment, Job Start Payment, and Young Carer Grant. We continue to expand the scope of our take-up analysis; for example, our most recent publication provided local authority level estimates for Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Foods, and discussed possible take-up measures for Child Disability Payment.