Care Leaver Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026: equality impact assessment

Stage 4: Decision making and monitoring

Identifying and establishing any required mitigating action

• Have positive or negative impacts been identified for any of the equality groups?

Positive impacts for equality of opportunity have been identified throughout. The purpose of the Care Leaver Payment is to help reduce some of the financial barriers that young people leaving care face whilst moving into adulthood and more independent living.

• Is the policy directly or indirectly discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010^[3]?

The policy may indirectly discriminate on the grounds of age.

• If the policy is indirectly discriminatory, how is it justified under the relevant legislation?

The payment focuses on care leavers, which will naturally only include young people of a certain age. This is justified as the power taken within the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 allows us to focus on financial assistance for people with care experience. This particular policy aims to capture a specific part of the care experienced population, those who are about to leave care on or after their 16^th birthday or those leaving Continuing Care.

• If not justified, what mitigating action will be undertaken?

N/A

Describing how Equality Impact analysis has shaped the policy making process

The EQIA has found that the Care Leaver Payment will have a positive impact on young people as they leave care, many of whom come from areas of higher deprivation. The Care Leaver Payment has been considered in the context of the public sector equality duty and it has been assessed that the payment may indirectly discriminate against people on the grounds of age. However, this is justified as the power taken within the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 allows us to focus financial assistance for people with care experience. The policy rationale aims to provide young people leaving care with additional financial assistance as they move on from care and captures a specific part of the care experienced population, ie, those who are about to leave care or Continuing Care, between the ages of 16-21.

Overall the EQIA has identified no significant negative impacts associated with the Care Leaver Payment and the Scottish Government has concluded that no changes to the policy are necessary as a result.

Monitoring and Review

In this section, explain how you will monitor and evaluate this policy to measure progress on equality issues identified in the EQIA. Include information on when the monitoring and evaluation will take place, and who is responsible for undertaking it. This should be part of the regular monitoring and evaluation mechanisms you devise for your policy.

Once the payment is underway, an evaluation of the impact of the payment will be undertaken, the details of which are to be confirmed.