Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill - fairer Scotland duty assessment impact assessment

Summary of aims and expected outcomes of strategy, proposal, programme or policy

Introduction

The ‘Move to UC’ is a UK Government programme that is phasing out several existing benefits and replacing them with Universal Credit (UC). As part of that the UK Government closed tax Credits on 5 April 2025. Applications for tax credits closed in April 2019, and everyone in the UK who was previously in receipt of tax credits has now been through the managed migration process known as the ‘Move to UC’.

Currently, the regulations for a number of Scottish Government social security benefits refer to entitlement to, or payment of, working tax credit and/or child tax credit, to establish eligibility for those Scottish Government social security benefits. These are: Best Start Foods, Best Start Grants, Scottish Child Payment, Funeral Support Payment, Winter Heating Payment and Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

As tax credits will cease to exist, they will no longer be a route to qualification for Scottish Government benefits. Removing Tax Credits from legislation is the end of the process which started when Tax Credits closed for new applications in 2019 and the change was already built into policy assumptions as the devolved benefits were delivered. These regulations will come into force in June 2025.

This impact assessment does not relate to the ‘Move to UC’ which is a UK Government initiative.

The regulations also include an amendment to the Social Security (Information-sharing) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 to replace reference to Discretionary Housing Payments being made under the Discretionary Financial Assistance Regulations 2001 with reference to Discretionary Housing Payments now being made under the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. This is a technical amendment, therefore a Fairer Scotland Duty assessment has not been undertaken on this element of the legislation.

The regulations also include an amendment for social security appeals that seeks to ensure that these processes are aligned across all benefits. An FSDIA has been prepared for this amendments as part of the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025. This impact assessment is available here.