Care Leaver Payment – Guidance for Practitioners

Care Leaver Payment – Guidance for Practitioners

The Scottish Ministers have issued and published this guidance in relation to the Care Leaver Payment, to provide support and clarity to practitioners as they deliver the payment and to promote consistency across all local authorities.

This guidance may also be used by practitioners to help support young people as they receive the payment.

In addition, guidance for young people has also been developed and can be accessed online: Care Leaver Payment – Guidance for Young People

Background to the Care Leaver Payment

The Scottish Government committed to developing a payment to provide young people moving on from care with additional financial security. To fulfil this commitment, the Scottish Government has established the Care Leaver Payment.

The Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 introduced a power for the Scottish Ministers to give financial assistance to those with experience of being in

the care system. Under this power, the Scottish Ministers have made the Care Leaver Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026 (“the Regulations”).

The payment was introduced on 1st April 2026.

The Care Leaver Payment is a payment of £2,000 for young people as they move from care into adulthood and more independent living.

The payment will be made to those who are legally defined as looked after on or after their 16th birthday and leave care after 1^st April 2026 (i.e. those who do not remain in continuing care) or those who leave continuing care after 1^st April 2026.

We are using the legal definition of ‘looked after’ in section 17(6) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 for the purposes of delivering this payment.

This definition extends to: foster care; residential care; looked-after kinship care; secure care; looked after at home; adoptees (if they were adopted after their 16th birthday or where an adoption has broken down) and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people.

• Foster care (being looked after by a foster family);
• Residential care (being looked after away from home, often with other children or young people);
• Looked-after kinship care (where you are legally ‘looked after’ by your local authority and living with a family member or family friend);
• Secure care (a form of residential care that restricts the freedom of children under the age of 18).
• Looked after at home (being looked after at home, but with regular visits from social workers to ensure that the objectives of a home supervision order are met);
• Adoptees – but only where they were adopted after their 16^th birthday or where the adoption has broken down and the young person becomes looked after again on or after their 16^th birthday); and,
• Unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people (young people under the age of 18 who arrive in Scotland without parents or guardians).

Purpose of the Care Leaver Payment

The Care Leaver Payment aims to provide additional financial security to young people as they move from care into adulthood. The Scottish Government are providing full funding to all local authorities to deliver the Care Leaver Payment on their behalf, and it is not intended to be used as a replacement for existing support.

The payment sits alongside the broader package of support that is already in place for care leavers, which includes, but is not limited to, setting up home payments, Continuing Care and Aftercare Support, the Care Experience Bursary and Council Tax Exemption for care leavers.

This guidance comprises three chapters. Chapter one sets out the framework of the Regulations, taking each regulation in turn. Chapter two provides additional guidance which is intended to support the delivery of the Care Leaver Payment. Chapter three sets out the Scottish Social Security principles which apply to social security legislation. While the principles do not apply to the Regulations, these principles were considered during the creation of the Care Leaver Payment and should be borne in mind when they are delivering the payment.