Bringing Hope, Building Futures: Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2026-2031

Maximising incomes from social security and benefits in kind

Since 2018, to maximise family incomes from social security and benefits in kind we have:

Deliberately built a radically different social security system, with dignity, fairness and respect at its heart - delivering 17 benefits, seven of them brand new and only available in Scotland.

Delivered Five Family Payments, including our Scottish Child Payment. From April 2026, they could be worth over £11,000 by the time an eligible child turns six and around £26,000 by the time they turn 16. This compares to less than £2,000 for families in England and Wales, where support ends when a child turns four.

Introduced the strongest package of winter support provided anywhere in the UK, including our Child Winter Heating Payment, which is only available in Scotland - forecast to support over 48,000 people in winter 2026-27.

Supported more than 244,000 parents and carers through our Scottish Child Payment - putting nearly £1.5 billion into the pockets of low-income families and keeping an estimated 50,000 children out of relative poverty in 2026-27.

Made almost 1.4 million Carer’s Allowance Supplement payments, totalling over £390 million, to over 186,000 Scottish carers.

Taken a positive and compassionate approach to delivering the Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment - ensuring that more disabled people get the support they are entitled to.

Made significant progress in maximising take-up of devolved Scottish benefits, including our Five Family Payments, with Scottish Child Payment take-up estimated at 94 percent for 2024-25.

Continued to invest in free-to-access debt, income maximisation and welfare advice, with our Money Talk Team supporting over 41,000 people from priority family households since 2018.

“When a family is in a better financial situation, it means children… can focus more on what they want to do without financial stress.”

Young person, Young Scot

Social security is one of the most powerful ways to keep children out of poverty, because it puts money directly into families’ pockets. Reaching the 2030 targets will only be possible with ongoing investment in social security and by making sure families can easily access the benefits they are entitled to.

Our investment in the Scottish Child Payment is already showing the real difference social security can make, with this payment alone estimated to keep 50,000 children out of poverty in 2026-27. Modelling estimates that improving the take-up of both UK Government and Scottish Government benefits could help to reduce child poverty rates by as much as a further three percentage points in 2030 – representing an additional 30,000 children who would not be in poverty.

Social security is an essential part of the support system we all depend on at different points in our lives. Due to circumstances beyond their control, some families rely more on social security, particularly where they have young children or a disability which limits their ability to work. But too many people still miss out on the support they are rightly entitled to because of stigma or fear about claiming. UK Government welfare policies also continue to make life harder for certain groups, including young parents, families impacted by the benefit cap, and families who face a shortfall on their housing costs due to frozen Local Housing Allowance rates.

By strengthening the support offered through our social security system and working with partners to improve take-up of reserved and devolved benefits, we can put more money in families’ pockets and make real progress toward our 2030 targets.

To drive further progress we will take action focused on:

• Strengthening support through social security
• Maximising take-up of Scottish and UK Government benefits
• Making money and debt advice more accessible for families

Strengthening support through social security

“Rising prices mean essentials like energy, housing, and food are difficult to afford, even when you are working... direct financial support such as free school meals, rent and the Scottish Child Payment help are vital, and go a long way”

Lou, Child Poverty Action Group, Cost of a child in Scotland in 2025

During our consultation, people told us they need stronger support from social security to improve their standards of living. This included calls to increase the value of the Scottish Child Payment.

We welcome the UK Government’s overdue decision to abolish the two-child limit, but more action is needed. Harmful welfare policies like the benefit cap, the young parent penalty, and the five-week wait for Universal Credit continue to push families into hardship. We will keep pressing the UK Government to match our action and investment so families can get the support they need.

In the year ahead we will maintain the progress we have made, including by continuing to:

• Uprate our Five Family Payments, including our Best Start Grants, Best Start Foods and Scottish Child Payment, in line with inflation. Backed by £524 million in 2026-27, this will see our Scottish Child Payment increase to £28.20 per week, forecast to benefit over 330,000 children. Investment in our Scottish Child Payment alone is estimated to keep 50,000 children out of poverty in 2026-27.
• Support low-income households to deal with emergencies through the Scottish Welfare Fund. Backed by further investment of £41 million in 2026-27, more than a third of awards are made to families with children.

We will also drive further progress by:

• Introducing a Scottish Child Payment Premium for children under 1, which will increase the total payment amount to £40 per week during 2027-28 benefitting an estimated 12,000 children. With families with a baby more likely to live in poverty or deep poverty, this will provide vital additional support in the first year of a child’s life.
• Delivering, from April 2026, a one-off £2,000 payment for care leavers as they move out of the care system and into independent living, estimated to benefit around 1,300 care leavers each year.

Case Study - Scottish Child Payment supporting families to thrive

The Scottish Child Payment is a weekly payment a family receives for every child they look after who is under 16. It is unique to Scotland, and is one of the Five Family Payments a family may be able to get from Social Security Scotland.

Michelle, a mother of three from Edinburgh, has shared the difference the Scottish Child Payment has made for her family.

“One of my daughters has autism and ADHD, and Scottish Child Payment allows me to do activities that calm her down and make her happy and that makes a massive difference.”

“Scottish Child Payment is something that helps you and helps your children when you’re in a difficult financial situation. I think there’s sometimes a stigma around applying for it, especially as a single mother, but I highly recommend that those who have yet to apply for it do so.”

We want every family to receive the support they are entitled to. Health visitors and family nurses, who already build trusted relationships with families from an early stage, will play an important role by offering clear advice and signposting families to financial support such as the under-1 premium.

Maximising take-up of Scottish and UK Government benefits

“For me [eliminating] the stigma associated with poverty… would then mean more people are more happy to claim what they’re entitled to and more likely to talk about poverty and ask for help when they need it”

Young person, MCR Pathways

Social security is an investment in the people of Scotland, and we want to make sure families receive all the support they are entitled to.

Stigma still prevents many people from accessing social security, with families in rural areas and minority ethnic communities facing particular barriers. We will continue to raise awareness of entitlements and challenge the stigma that stops families seeking support. As well as promoting our benefits, we will explore opportunities for automation and auto-award so families do not have to navigate complex applications. We have already introduced auto-award of Best Start Grant Early Learning and School Age Payments for families receiving Scottish Child Payment.

We will drive further progress by:

• Delivering a national, multi-channel Parental Employability and Financial Support campaign to help families access available support. This will include locally targeted and tailored signposting to information, advice and support to apply for benefits they are entitled to – including reserved benefits such as Universal Credit.
• Publishing the next Benefit Take-up Strategy for Scottish Government benefits, setting out how we will support take up of devolved benefits over 2026-2031.
• Working with public and third sector partners to identify additional opportunities to share Social Security Scotland data to support income maximisation. This will include specific projects like the one to explore data sharing with local authorities so that they can identify families with children experiencing council tax debts and target additional support.
• Setting out options to pilot client referrals between Social Security Scotland and other public and third sector organisations.
• Taking forward a pilot with a local authority partner to proactively and safely share Social Security Scotland’s data, including Scottish Child Payment data, to enable more targeted support for families, with a view to a wider roll out.

Making money and debt advice more accessible for families

“I am very concerned about my mum’s mental health and physical health especially as she owes so many bills that add up to over £2k and there’s nothing she can do apart from paying it in small chunks monthly. It’s upsetting because she can’t afford to treat herself or use the money wisely.”

Young person, Young Scot

Families need access to trusted, high-quality advice to help them understand their rights, boost their incomes, and deal with financial pressures like debt. Advice services can also help families save money on essentials like energy and internet.

During our consultation, people told us how important these services are, particularly for disabled people, and stressed that advice must be genuinely accessible and underpinned by secure, long-term funding. Research from One Parent Families Scotland, Fife Gingerbread and IPPR Scotland also highlights the need for the UK Government to transform child maintenance to ensure that all families, especially lone parents, can access the support they need.

Since 2018 we have continued to invest in free-to-access advice on debt, income maximisation and welfare, and we will maintain progress by continuing to:

• Invest over £27 million in welfare, income maximisation and debt advice services over the next two years through multi-year grants, providing stability and certainty for the sector, improving staff retention and therefore service quality, which we expect will support at least 80,000 households each year.
• Provide funding of £6 million for the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund by the end of 2028-29, which we expect will support over 7,500 people each year.

We will also drive further progress by:

• Providing up to £275,000 to One Parent Families Scotland and Fife Gingerbread to help more separated families access regular and reliable child maintenance payments. Primarily benefitting lone parents, the majority of which are women, this will improve the quality of information available to parents, help to upskill advice workers across Scotland to feel more confident in speaking to parents about child maintenance and ensure expert support is available for the most complex cases.
• Making good quality advice and support on income maximisation more easily available by sharing existing best practice more widely and working with education, health and advice sectors to review how to sustainably embed advice in schools and increase confidence to have conversations on family finance as part of routine care.
• Working in partnership with third sector and local authority advice providers to better understand workforce development needs and to support longer term workforce development to maximise the sustainability and quality of advice services.

Case Study - Advice as an entry point to holistic support

Under ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ we committed to expanding access to advice. This has enabled more families to access their entitlements, maximise their income and equip themselves with the resources, skills and support they need to thrive.

In Glasgow, Caroline – a young mum living with her parents and infant daughter – was referred to One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) by the Family Nurse Partnership for support with multiple challenges including anxiety, depression, low confidence and social isolation.

OPFS provided Caroline with 1:1 family support and invited her to join their Best Beginnings Group for young parents. Their Financial Inclusion team carried out a full benefit check and helped her apply for the support she was entitled to, including Universal Credit, Scottish Child Payment, Child Benefit, and Adult Disability Payment. They also provided financial help to ease the pressure of rising living costs and the Young Parents Penalty within Universal Credit.

OPFS connected Caroline with Say Women, a specialist organisation that supports young women aged 16-25 who have experienced sexual abuse, so she could receive the emotional support she needed.

Alongside this practical and emotional help, Caroline connected with other young mums which boosted her confidence and self-esteem. She said:

“Before I started the group, I didn’t think I was a good mum. Coming here made me realise I’m trying my best, and that’s enough for my [child]. I feel stronger now.”

This progress was echoed by Caroline’s social worker and her family nurse:

“It was lovely to see her with her floor mats out and [infant] enjoying sensory play learned being with the group. You are all really making such a difference to both [mum and infant’s] life.”

Despite everything she has been through, Caroline is hopeful about the future for herself and her daughter. Through her own determination and with the support of OPFS, she is building a more stable, positive foundation for her family’s wellbeing.