Scottish Budget 2020-2021

Annex G: Social Security Block Grant Adjustments

As part of the Fiscal Framework between the Scottish Government and the UK Government, a Block Grant Adjustment is applied to the Scottish Block Grant for social security expenditure devolved under the Scotland Act 2016. Social Security Block Grant Adjustments (BGAs) are added to the Scottish Block Grant since they represent expenditure which the UK Government no longer needs to make. This is in contrast to tax BGAs which are deducted since they represent revenues foregone.

Provisional BGAs for social security have been used due to the Scottish Budget being published before the UK Budget. Updated BGAs will be calculated based on forecasts produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) at the UK Budget on 11 March and these updated BGAs could be incorporated into the Scottish Budget, if the Scottish Government requests this.

Further detail on the operation of the Fiscal Framework is set out in the Fiscal Framework Technical Note.

The provisional BGAs for social security are set out in Table G.01.

Table G.01: Social Security Block Grant Adjustments

Notes:
The BGAs shown are calculated using the Indexed Per Capita (IPC) indexation method. This method in practice determines the BGAs applied to the budget. This is set out in more detail in the Fiscal Framework Technical Note.^[1]
Figures may not sum due to rounding
2018-19 Carer's Allowance is Outturn

Methodology for calculating provisional BGAs for social security expenditure

Executive competence for Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Industrial Injuries Disablement Allowance, Personal Independent Payment and Severe Disablement Allowance are being transferred from 2020-21 and BGAs for these benefits are being calculated for the first time. As a result, the UK Spring Statement 2019 did not include Scottish forecasts for any of these. A summary of how the baseline figure for each benefit has been calculated is below.

Attendance Allowance

The OBR published a Scottish forecast for Attendance Allowance at the UK Spring Statement 2019 and this forecast has been used to calculate the 2020-21 provisional BGA.

Carer's Allowance

Carer's Allowance was devolved in 2018-19 and a BGA from the forecast in the UK Spring Statement 2019 has been added to the Scottish Government's budget.

Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independent Payment

The OBR published an aggregated Scottish forecast for DLA and PIP along with a forecast of their aggregated expenditure in Scotland as a percentage of Great Britain at the UK Spring Statement 2019. That percentage has been applied to the separate Great Britain forecasts from the UK Spring Statement 2019 to produce 2019-20 baseline forecasts for each benefit which are used to calculate the separate 2020-21 provisional BGAs.

Severe Disablement Allowance, Industrial Injuries Disablement Allowance

The OBR did not publish a Scottish forecast of SDA or IIDA at the UK Spring Statement 2019. To calculate a 2019-20 baseline figure for each benefit, expenditure in Scotland as a percentage of Great Britain has been calculated using 2018-19 Department of Work and Pensions outturn for the benefit and applied to the OBR 2019-20 forecast from the UK Spring Statement 2019. These baselines are used to calculate the 2020-21 provisional BGAs.

Footnotes

1. https://www.gov.scot/publications/fiscal-framework-factsheet/pages/technical-note/