The breakdown of total payments for Best Start Grant (BSG): FOI release

Information requested

Can you explain the breakdown of total payments for best start grant? From the article posted here (https://www.gov.scot/news/best-start-grant-pays-out-nearly-gbp-13-million) there are 42,000 payments to families in Scotland, in 9 months, totalling £12.9 million.
Why are there 42000 payments (in 9 months) made since the start of the grant when there are only 50,000(approx) births per annum in Scotland. Surely not all births this year have been to parents eligible on qualifying benefits.

Response

1. In the article referenced in your request, there were 42,000 payments to families in Scotland, in 9 months, totalling £12.9 million.
The 43,260 payments to families in Scotland, totalling £12.9 million were for all the Best Start Grant benefits combined (Best Start Grant - Pregnancy and Baby Payment, Best Start Grant - Early Learning Payment and Best Start Grant - School Age Payment). As the article states, £6.1 million was for the Best Start Grant - Pregnancy and Baby Payment.
This arose from 15,840 authorised applications (until the end of June 2019). Full details are in the publication below.
[Best Start Grant: high level statistics to 30 June 2019 – tables] Link: https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0054/00548193.xlsx

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