Five Family Payments evaluation: annex A - mixed methods research

8. Future developments of the FFP

When reporting their experiences of receiving the Five Family Payments, parents and carers shared a general appreciation for receiving the payments and reflected on the impact it has had on their family. Reported impacts ranged from reduced financial pressure and reliance on the payments as a key source of income, to being able to afford better quality food and items for their children. While there were parents and carers who reported that the process of receiving the payments was straightforward with no challenges, others highlighted some challenges and suggestions on how their experiences of receiving FFP could have been better.

8.1. Promoting knowledge and awareness of the Five Family Payments

With the aim of increasing awareness of FFP, parents, carers and stakeholders felt that there should be greater promotion of the payments and their eligibility criteria. They suggested this could be promoted through national and local advertising, as well as working with support organisations, schools and health professionals. Furthermore, stakeholders suggested placing information in places that families regularly go, such as community centres and supermarkets. In particular, it was proposed that there should be greater promotion at earlier stages, such as during pregnancy, to allow low-income families to apply and receive all FFP. Parents and carers recommended that health professionals could share information about the payments at appointments at hospitals and GP surgeries to promote the payments to families.

That's kind of more where my head would go, to go to the root of it when you're pregnant. Early pregnancy as well. I didn't find out about this until I'd had my baby. If I had known about it in early pregnancy, it would have been a gamechanger. I would have applied way earlier. Well before I had the baby and everything I think I would have applied, and then had it in place earlier. That would have been brilliant for me. (Parent and carer interview)

Parents and carers identified other avenues for promoting FFP by using existing relationships with parents and families. Schools and nurseries were commonly suggested, with some reporting learning about FFP through flyers and information sharing at their children’s schools.

I think it's almost like trying to find ways where it's not going to cost any extra money, but it's quite simple channels that already exist. Obviously, things like libraries and things, I suspect, probably have information anyway, but I do find schools - and maybe even asking the schools 1) to put it out to parents, but 2) maybe asking to highlight it at parent council meetings or something like that too. (Parent and carer interview)

A stakeholder stressed the need for information about FFP to be highly visible, attention-grabbing and accessible.

It needs to be somewhere that's going to grab their attention […] Just because it's there, it doesn't mean they're going to read it, so it needs to be visible and easy to understand and catch the eye. (Stakeholder interview)

Using face-to-face outreach sessions to raise awareness of FFP was perceived by stakeholders to be particularly effective at encouraging families to apply. Reflecting on the groups of parents and carers most likely to be unaware of FFP, stakeholders suggested targeted awareness-raising campaigns aimed at single fathers, parents with older children and minority ethnic families. Furthermore, while stakeholders felt that Social Security Scotland’s communication of FFP had improved, they were also clear that awareness-raising needed to be on-going to keep levels of awareness as high as possible.

[FFP] should be something that is continuously promoted. The DWP and Social Security Scotland are kind of the same in that there’s a big flurry when things are launched and then it kind of dies down. We would like to see a more continuous bombardment almost of making sure that people are eligible. (Stakeholder interview)

Increasing the visibility of Social Security Scotland by having a high-street presence, in a similar way to Job Centres, was identified by stakeholders as a strategy for increasing take-up of FFP. An in-person high-street presence for Social Security Scotland would also help families who needed more intensive support with their FFP applications. While a local delivery service is available to offer localised support, participants were unaware of this service^[9].

With these families you need a lot of support. Unless you have someone who is quite involved and helps them at each stage, they can very easily fall through the cracks or stop progressing […] It would be good if Social Security Scotland had in place some in-person offices to which you could send clients themselves with documents where they could be dealt with face-to-face rather than having that intermediary on the phone asking security questions and getting an interpreter. It's not designed very well for families with limited literacy and language skills. (Stakeholder interview)

Stakeholders also highlighted using clear and accessible language in communications about FFP, including providing easy read versions of information about FFP.

Creating a more joined-up system between the reserved benefits, such as Universal Credit, and devolved benefits, such as FFP, was identified by stakeholders as important for raising families’ awareness of their entitlements. It was suggested that a successful Univeral Credit claim could trigger an alert about devolved benefits a family may be entitled to.

When somebody qualifies for Universal Credit that there’s something sent to them to say do you know about these other benefits? Because there isn’t, because the DWP won’t tell them about the devolved payments. Social Security Scotland access [UC] awards but don’t really know when things start because they’re dealing with thousands of claims. So, a better link up so that as soon as somebody qualifies for something like UC that triggers the applications for the Five Families. (Stakeholder interview)

8.2. Addressing internal and external stigma towards receiving benefits

As reported in Chapter 3, parents, carers and stakeholders identified stigma around claiming benefits as a barrier to take-up. While there was an acknowledgement that reducing stigma will take time, there were some suggestions on how to address the challenge within the context of FFP. Parents and carers suggested considering wording when promoting the payments and understanding that there is stigma attached to the word ‘benefit’. Though there were suggestions of television and radio campaigns to promote take-up of FFP, there was also a view that these modes of promotion could attract negative attention from the public regarding people who receive benefits. It was suggested that advertising should focus on how receiving the payments can benefit children.

I think if the government were to give it the approach of the Scottish Child Payment is your child's money, people would be more likely to claim it because they're not claiming it for themselves and they won't feel selfish or they won't feel like they're a benefits scrounger if they're just claiming something that their child is entitled to. (Parent and carer interview)

Parents and carers also reflected that government bodies are not seen as approachable by the general public and that having social media advertising or clients promoting the payments themselves would be more beneficial.

I think it would be easier for people like me to be telling people about benefits that they're entitled to and for people to then be confident to uptake them, than it would to have a stuffy government advert on the TV saying, 'You can be entitled to this.' Do you know what I mean? (Parent and carer interview)

8.3. Additional support and changes to the FFP application process

Stakeholders were clear that many of the families they worked with needed support to apply for FFP. However, indepth understanding of the complexity of the social security benefit system is a specialist area with limited capacity within Scotland. Better training, upskilling and monitoring of staff providing financial support and advice to low income families is required to ensure that going forward support is consistent and good quality. Stakeholders emphasised that increased and long-term funding for independent support services is central to the provision of better support for families. A stakeholder described the inefficiencies created by the short-term funding that was common in the advice sector:

So one of the people I took on, we ended up with that funding for like 4 or 5 years. So I trained them really, really well. They could do pretty much everything. That funded ended, now thankfully they got [another] job so they’re still in advice, so that is’nae lost. But if they never got that post all of that training and all that work could effectively have been lost and that’s part of the problem in advice, like the short-term funding where you’re no’ then able to keep people and keep them building up that bank of knowledge. (Stakeholder interview)

To address any barriers to receiving an outcome on their application, parents and carers suggested having a way to check the progress of the application online and see if there are any issues. Those who struggled to complete the application form suggested that Social Security Scotland could offer alternative modes to apply for FFP, such as by telephone. The option to complete the application by telephone is available though some respondents were not aware of this.

When you're having a baby or you've just had a baby, it's a lot. It's a long application process. Rightly they need to know this information, but I feel like it could be done in an easier way. If it was a phone call conversation with someone and you were applying through a phone call with them, something like this, I think it would be so much - like an interview to apply rather than all of the paperwork. It was really difficult for me to apply, and part of me just didn't want to reapply. I was like, ‘oh, it doesn't matter’, but I had to reapply because I needed the money. (Parent and carer interview)

If I knew somebody was on the other side of a phone, if I was unable and could telephone them up for guidance, that would be my only way forwards with things, because there's a lot of things that I've lost out on because I couldn't figure these emails out. (Parent and carer interview)

Stakeholders advised that ongoing user testing of FFP application processes would help to quickly identify and address issues.

To ensure families were kept well-informed about their FFP claims, parents and carers suggested that using an online journal or portal, similar to Universal Credit, to share communication and information on upcoming eligibility for payments would ease this process and help families manage the different payments.

Sometimes you think ‘Oh I wouldn’t phone them, I wouldn’t contact them’ but it’s just to know…they’re obviously offering a service and offering a lot of support but I think maybe that could be a way to keep people in touch with the service and you know additional supports that they might have. (Parent and carer interview)

Additionally, parents and carers who at the time of applying did not automatically receive the three payments of BSG, highlighted the value of an automated process for recipients so they do not miss the opportunity to receive payments for their children.

This really needs to be an automated service. If you have applied for one then the next payment should be automatically sent. I missed out on one for my daughter because of this system and my circumstances were still the same. If it could link to the UC system like most other benefits then it would be a great system. (Survey respondent)

Finally, to help address the digitial poverty that prevented families from applying for FFP, stakeholders suggested providing an easy opt-out to the equality questions on the application form. While fully acknowledging the importance of collecting equalities data, stakeholders spoke about the frustration of the inclusion of compulsory questions (applicants can select ‘prefer not to say’ but not skip the equality questions) for clients with very limited phone credit and time.

8.4. Changes to eligibility of the FFP

While expressing gratitude for the extension of the Scottish Child Payment to children up to age of 16, parents and carers raised concerns about the potential financial impact of the payments ending and emphasised the continued cost of supporting their older children who live at home and are no longer entitled to the payments. There were suggestions of extending SCP until their children leave school, reach the age of 18, access further education or until they complete further or higher education.

Scottish Child Payment is a great financial help however the amount each week is not enough to cover the cost of children. There should also be a payment for kids between 16 & 18 year old as their items are a lot more expensive for school/college or daily essentials. (Survey respondent)

I’ve had a letter to say SCP for my daughter will stop soon as she turns 16 in December. I strongly disagree with this as she will still be in full time education and not working so she is still dependent on me. This will have a huge impact on my finances. (Survey respondent)

Extending the age eligibility for BSF was also raised by parents and carers. In the open-text responses of the survey, respondents shared how continued payments for BSF would allow them to provide healthy meals and afford fruit and vegetables for their older children.

Best Start Foods has been a huge help but actually it would be good to have money to cover older children too so I can use it for ingredients to make healthy dinners. (Survey respondent)

I think it should be for all age kids not just ‘til 3 as my older kids cost more in fruit and veg than my younger ones do. (Survey respondent)

To help avoid the loss of FFP that occurred when a temporary fluctuation in income meant that a family was no longer eligible for Universal Credit, it was suggested both by parents, carers and by stakeholders that Social Security Scotland could have a waiting period before stopping payments and conduct an eligibility check rather than respondents having to reapply.

I was happy with how the Scottish Child Payment worked and it was used to get my son the necessities and to take him to his baby classes and swimming. However, it was stopped because of my final payment from leaving my work which resulted in one month of no Universal Credit payment. Now I need to reapply, which I feel there should be a process in place for claimants where there is a 2-3 month period where eligibility is checked. If the Scottish Child Payment people had waited and done an eligibility check they would have seen I was still in receipt of Universal Credit and I would not be having to wait 12 weeks to then reapply. This has made my budget extremely thin and my son is missing his classes for the time being. (Survey respondent)

To help families avoid a substantial loss of income, stakeholders suggested removing UC receipt from FFP eligibility and instead use a devolved benefit, such as Council Tax to simplify the process for families and for Social Security Scotland.

Finally, reflecting on the deep poverty experienced by families with No Recourse to Public Funds, stakeholders hoped that eligibility for all FFP could be extended to these families.

8.5. Suggested changes to how clients receive the FFP

Overall, parents and carers appreciated having FFP as a source of income, though the extent to which it has impacted their household varied. For those who continued to struggle financially or have discussed the impact of the cost of living to afford essentials, the payment amount for SCP and BSF was not viewed as sufficient to cover household costs.

It's nice to know that, obviously, the Scottish Government cares enough about mothers, or even the fathers that receive them, because that'll be some other people's cases. That they care enough about us and our children that they offer us that payment. Because for some people that are in a lot worse financial situations than maybe what I'm in, that will help them afford to keep the lights on in their house or to keep their house heated. (Parent and carer interview)

Although FFP were viewed as helpful, participants did state that more money would allow them to better support their household and provide for their children. Survey respondents suggested increasing eligibility of SCP to older children, having additional financial support for lone parents, and increasing the value of the payment during period when costs were higher, such as the winter.

I think single parents that get no financial support from the other parent should be offered more financial support to help provide [for] the child. (Survey respondent)

It has been helpful, but I feel that it still isn't in line with the cost of living and how expensive everything is and managing the cost of having children. (Survey respondent)

The Scottish Child Payment is helpful, but if the amount were higher, it would have a greater impact on covering daily expenses and improving the financial situation of families. Increasing the payment could provide more support and reduce financial pressures. (Survey respondent)

There were positive reflections of receiving FFP with regards to the timings of payments. Best Start Grant payments were generally viewed as appropriate for when their children needed essential items, such as clothes and supplies for nursery and school. There were also clients who found receiving Scottish Child Payment every 4 weeks as helpful and who were able to plan and budget around the scheduled payments and other sources of income. Despite this, parents and carers reported that they continued to struggle financially to cover costs and make payments last for the month. It was suggested that SCP should arrive on the same date each month, or parents and carers should have the choice between weekly and monthly payments to allow greater flexibility to budget and manage their finances. However, there was also a view that weekly payments of SCP would not have as much of a financial impact on their household compared to a monthly lump sum.

Challenges with using the BSF card were raised by parents and carers. Suggestions to improve the experience of using the card included addressing the technical challenges clients have faced, having an easier way of checking their balance, receiving payments into their own bank account and not limiting what the card can be used for.