Seldom Heard Groups Action Plan

Research Into Seldom-Heard Groups Within the Scottish Social Security System

The Scottish Government commissioned the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) to undertake a review of the evidence on the experience of seldom-heard groups within Scotland’s social security system. ScotCen reviewed evidence from 2018 to 2024, including peer-reviewed articles, government reports, and third-sector data. This review was considered necessary because the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and the devolution of certain reserved benefits and the introduction of new benefits in Scotland, had changed the landscape of social security in Scotland since the initial seldom-heard groups scoping activity was conducted in 2019. The research aimed to provide the Scottish Government with a systematic and robust analysis of the seldom-heard groups that remained at risk of marginalisation in the social security system. The objectives were to:

1) Explore take-up of social security benefits in Scotland among seldom-heard groups by reviewing data on current levels of participation, representation and engagement.

2) Assess evidence for the ongoing accuracy and relevance of the seldom-heard groups identified by the Scottish Government in 2019 and to identify whether there are additional seldom-heard groups to be included in these.

3) Identify barriers to accessing entitlements for seldom-heard groups.

4) Review existing evidence to identify interventions that might support the needs of the seldom-heard groups in accessing social security entitlements.

5) Consider which seldom-heard groups to prioritise in terms of the extent of their exclusion from Scotland’s social security system.

Key Findings

The review confirmed that estimating take-up rates for seldom-heard groups is challenging due to difficulties in identifying the number of people within these communities who are eligible for different benefits, as well as limited data collection on them. Social Security Scotland does collect data on the protected characteristics of people applying for a Social Security Scotland benefit, as outlined in the Equality Act 2010, and publishes the number of applicants and their approval rates by these protected characteristics each financial year. There is, however, not an exact match between protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act 2010 and the seldom-heard groups identified by the Scottish Government.

Furthermore, while the groups identified as seldom-heard by the Scottish Government in 2019 remain marginalised, the research that this Action Plan responds to highlighted additional groups that should be considered in this category. These include:

• Minority ethnic communities;
• People with disabilities or chronic health conditions, including mental health conditions, fluctuating and/or less visible conditions, and learning disabilities or difficulties;
• Socially isolated or housebound older adults; and
• Larger families (families with 3 or more children).

The review provided broadly categorised barriers to take-up in addition to recommending further groups for inclusion within the definition of seldom-heard. These barriers align with those identified by the Scottish Government in the first Benefit Take-Up Strategy (2019). They are:

1. Psychological barriers (e.g. stigma, fear of authority, experiences of trauma).

2. Learning barriers (e.g. complexity of the social security system, lack of support to apply, and inaccessibility of information on benefits).

3. Compliance barriers (e.g. application difficulties, challenges providing supporting information, and decision-making delays).

The review found limited evidence on which groups are most affected by these barriers, suggesting it would be difficult to prioritise specific seldom-heard groups and design individual interventions for them. Instead, the review recommended addressing systemic barriers through culturally sensitive messaging, improved data collection, simplified applications, and tailored support and that this could be the most effective way to improve benefit take-up across seldom-heard groups.

It is important to note that the groups identified as seldom-heard in the review were based on the availability of published evidence within the research parameters set for the review. The absence of certain groups (for example, LGBTQ+ people) does not indicate that they are not seldom-heard. Rather, this reflects a lack of available evidence on the experience of these groups in the social security system at the time of the review.