Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018: progress report 2024 to 2025

1. Foreword

As Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, I am delighted to introduce this seventh annual progress update on the implementation of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 covering the year from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

During this period, I am proud that the Scottish Government invested around £6 billion in social security payments, providing vital support to 1.2 million people, support which any one of us could need at any time in our lives

Working at pace, we introduced two additional benefits during the reporting year – Carer Support Payment and Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance – taking the total number of benefits delivered by the Scottish Government to fifteen, seven of which are only available here in Scotland and all of which provide direct and targeted support to those who need it most.

Our Carer Support Payment was made available nationally in November last year and provides support to carers across Scotland, including many who are full-time students and who would not have qualified for Carers Allowance, the UK Government benefit which it replaces.

In December last year, we announced that we will mitigate the UK Government’s unacceptable Two Child Limit with our new Two-Child Limit Payment and we announced that through rapid work to develop the systems needed, payments will begin in March next year. This will support low-income families in Scotland impacted by this punitive UK Government policy which prevents parents from receiving the Universal Credit child element for more than two children. Scottish Government modelling estimates that mitigating this policy will result in 20,000 fewer children living in relative poverty in 2026-27 compared to if the cap had not been mitigated.

Throughout the reporting year, we continued to make significant progress on the safe and secure transfer of existing cases from the Department of Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland. We successfully completed transferring the awards of everyone in Scotland who was receiving Personal Independence Payment, almost 350,000 disabled people, to Adult Disability Payment, and this will be covered in detail in next year’s report. We remain on track to complete case transfer for all relevant disability and carer benefits by the end of 2025.

Another key development in the reporting year was the enactment of the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 in January. The 2025 Act provides for a range of improvements to various devolved social security processes and policies based on the essential Social Security Principles enshrined in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. These changes focus on delivering further value for money and further improving client experience.

One of the most important provisions in the unanimously passed 2018 Act is the requirement it places on the Scottish Government to actively promote take-up of social security benefits to help ensure that people receive the support they are entitled to. This is demonstrated by our detailed and published Benefit Take-up Strategy, which is one of the cornerstones of our very different approach in Scotland, an approach based upon the essential principles of dignity, fairness and respect. I am pleased to say that in October 2025 the latest estimates of take-up of Scottish benefits were published, showing that take-up remains high for the Five Family Payments - including of course our Scottish Child Payment, which our modelling estimates will keep 40,000 children out of relative poverty in 2025-26 - and has increased for several other of our benefits, including Young Carer Grant and Funeral Support Payment.

As the First Minister said in January, in a speech on our 2025-2026 Budget for Hope and Recovery, our decision to invest in Scotland’s social security safety net to target help at those most in need of it reflects the values that are fundamental to who we are as a nation and I’m delighted therefore to warmly welcome this annual report documenting our considerable achievements in social security over the course of the last financial year.