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

5. Delivery of Social Security Benefits

The introduction, implementation and ongoing administration of Scottish social security is a priority of the Scottish Government. The following section provides information about the introduction of new Scottish benefits within the reporting year as well as the ongoing delivery of existing Scottish benefits.

More details about the benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland can be found on the Social Security Scotland website and official statistics are published on the Social Security Scotland website.

5.1 Support for Carers

Carer Support Payment

The roll out of Carer Support Payment, which is replacing Carer's Allowance in Scotland, continued throughout 2024. The benefit provides income for unpaid carers in recognition of their role and its impact on their ability to take on paid work. The benefit opened for applications in the pilot areas of Dundee City, Perth and Kinross and Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) in November 2023, and the phased roll out continued from June 2024, with the benefit becoming available nationally in November 2024.

The benefit was rolled out in phases due to the complex links it has with other benefits, including those provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The phased rollout approach was designed to ensure that these links with wider benefits and services were maintained, so carers could continue to get all of the support they are entitled to. During the phased rollout, a total of 24 virtual roadshow events were facilitated by officials in order to promote take up and understanding of the benefit. These were attended by a number of stakeholders, including many welfare rights organisations, support workers, student funding advisers and carers.

By 31 March 2025, 17,260 Carer Support Payment applications had been received and £89.4 million had been issued in payments to carers. As of 31 March 2025, 6,170 carers in receipt of payment for Carer Support Payment were new applicants.

The process of transferring awards for carers already receiving Carer’s Allowance from the DWP to Carer Support Payment from Social Security Scotland began in February 2024. This continued throughout 2024 and is on track to complete by the end of 2025. Awards are transferred automatically with no need for carers to apply. The latest published statistics show that 105,195 carers getting Carer Support Payment in March 2025 had had their award transferred from the DWP.

Carer Support Payment has been developed with carers and support organisations to work for the people that will use it. The benefit is available to many full-time students who would not have met eligibility criteria for Carer’s Allowance, intended to help to remove barriers to education and expected to widen access to support to 1,500 more carers. Carer Support Payment has also been designed to signpost carers to wider services to help them to access all of the support they are entitled to, in social security and beyond, including for example local services and support groups.

Draft Amendment Regulations for Carer Support Payment and Young Carer Grant were referred to the Scottish Commission on Social Security for formal scrutiny in November 2024 and the Commission published their scrutiny report in February 2025. The regulations will provide for several priority improvements that the Scottish Government committed to bring forward once Carer Support Payment was available nationally and case transfer from Carer’s Allowance was complete. These include new extra support for those receiving the benefit and caring for more than one person (‘the Carer Additional Person Payment’), and extended support for carers after the loss of the person for whom they care. They also provide for Scottish Carer Supplement which will replace, for most carers, Carer’s Allowance Supplement, meaning carers will receive the additional support more regularly, as well as extension of eligibility to Young Carer Grant to 19-year-olds.

These improvements are in addition to the broader support that we provide for carers, including through the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016. This work to develop Carer Support Payment is part of a wider cross-government approach to carer support and recognition as set out in our National Carers Strategy.

Carer’s Allowance Supplement

Carers make an immense contribution to our society. That is why improving support for carers was one of our first priorities with our new social security powers. Carer's Allowance Supplement was the first payment made by Social Security Scotland and increases Carer's Allowance – the lowest value of all working-age benefits – by over 13% for carers in Scotland.

Eligible carers have received a payment of Carer’s Allowance Supplement every six months since 2018. In 2024-25, the rate of each payment was £288.60. Payments are made automatically to carers living in Scotland and receiving either Carer Support Payment from Social Security Scotland, or Carer's Allowance from the DWP on two qualifying dates in the year, with no need to apply. By the end of 2025, carers continuously in receipt of Carer's Allowance Supplement will have received over £4,400 above the value of Carer's Allowance or Carer Support Payment since the introduction of the Supplement. From launch in 2018 to the 2024 October eligibility date, over 1.2 million Carer's Allowance Supplement payments, totalling £334.8 million, had been issued. The latest published statistics show that expenditure for 2024-25 was £54 million, compared to £48 million in 2023-24.

Based on responses to our Carer’s Assistance public consultation in 2022, throughout the reporting period we have been proceeding with plans to pay the Carer’s Allowance Supplement alongside regular payments of Carer Support Payment from 2026, providing carers with a higher regular income to support with day-to-day expenses. If the Scottish Parliament approve the regulations, people already receiving Carer Support Payment will start getting the Scottish Carer Supplement, which is replacing Carer’s Allowance Supplement in Spring 2026, without needing to apply. When a carer makes a new application for Carer Support Payment we will, through the same application process, award Scottish Carer Supplement whenever the carer is entitled to Carer Support Payment.

Young Carer Grant

The first of its kind in the UK, the Young Carer Grant supports young carers in Scotland with a payment worth £383.75 in 2024-25, which can be applied for annually, to access life opportunities which are the norm for many of their peers without caring responsibilities.

Young Carer Grant is paid to 16 to 18 year-olds who meet the eligibility criteria. To be eligible, young carers must have been caring for an average of 16 hours per week for at least the last three months. The Grant is not means-tested, the young person does not need to be in education to qualify, and they can spend the Grant as they choose.

Young Carer Grant official statistics show that from launch until the end of March 2025, Social Security Scotland had received 25,475 applications, 16,440 payments had been made, with £5.6 million invested. Through the Grant, £1.6 million was paid to young carers in the 2024-25 financial year.

The Scottish Government is working to extend eligibility for our Young Carer Grant to 19 year-olds in 2025. This extension will mean young carers can receive up to four payments, increasing the potential impact of the Grant.

During the reporting year, we have continued to incorporate the findings from the Young Carer Grant Interim Evaluation published in August 2021, which showed that the payment had a positive impact for young carers. The issues highlighted in the evaluation have been considered when reviewing benefit promotion activity and the application process. More broadly, the findings are being considered in developing future Young Carer Grant policy and improvements to the Carer Support Payment, which will complement existing and planned interventions to support carers both through social security and at a wider government level.

5.2 Funeral Support Payment

Social Security Scotland began taking applications for the Funeral Support Payment in September 2019. This is a one-off payment for eligible people on a low income, to help towards the costs of a funeral. The payment is made up of three parts comprising: burial, cremation or alkaline hydrolysis costs (including some document and medical costs); a flat rate payment for other expenses; and some transport costs.

The Scottish Government substantially widened eligibility for Funeral Support Payment compared to the UK Government’s funeral payment when it launched.

We introduced amendment regulations this year to further support bereaved people. The changes included extending the definition of a funeral to include alkaline hydrolysis, providing assistance for funerals abroad in exceptional circumstances and removing some restrictions on funeral costs for funerals outside the deceased’s local area. .

This year Social Security Scotland provided almost £12.2m of support to 5,735 individual clients. The mean average Funeral Support Payment award issued in 2024-25 was £2,103.

Throughout 2024–2025, Social Security Scotland have engaged with key stakeholders such as registrars, funeral directors, public bodies and third sector organisations to help raise awareness of Funeral Support Payment, eligibility criteria and the application process.

This included a series of digital online events, attending and delivering a speech at the Funeral Poverty Forum and Grief Matters events and hosting a pop up event at Glasgow Central Mosque.

5.3 Winter Heating Benefits

Winter Heating Payment

In February 2023 we introduced our Winter Heating Payment, replacing the UK Government's Cold Weather Payment in Scotland. Winter Heating Payment supports people on low incomes to help with their heating expenses every winter, including pensioners, disabled people and families responsible for a disabled child or a child under five.

It provides a stable, reliable payment to those in receipt of certain low income benefits each winter, and by removing the reliance on weather conditions, we can ensure that every person identified as requiring additional support receives it.

In winter 2024-25 the Winter Heating Payment provided 465,510 payments to low income households at a value of £58.75, a total investment of £27.3 million. For the vast majority of people our payment provides more support than they have received on average previously through the DWP benefit.

Child Winter Heating Payment

Child Winter Heating Payment is paid automatically to families with children and young people up to the age of 19 in receipt of a relevant qualifying benefit to help mitigate the additional heating costs that the households of disabled children and young people face in the winter months.

The qualifying benefits are the highest rate of the care component of Disability Living Allowance for children, the highest rate of the care component of Child Disability Payment, the enhanced daily living component of Adult Disability Payment or the enhanced daily living component of Personal Independence Payment.

To be eligible, the young person or child must be entitled to a qualifying benefit on any single day during the qualifying week. In 2024, the qualifying week was Monday 16 September to Sunday 22 September.

For winter 2024-25, 39,590 Child Winter Heating Payments valued at £251.50 had been issued, totalling £10 million. During this period, the majority of payments were made by the end of October 2024, with around 93% of payments issued in that month. The remaining 7% of payments were issued from November 2024 onwards.

Since November 2020 to 8 April 2025, 138,105 Child Winter Heating Payments have been issued, with a total value of £31.3 million.

Pension Age Winter Heating Payment

Pension Age Winter Heating Payment was due to be introduced and delivered by Social Security Scotland in winter 2024-2025, replacing the UK Government’s Winter Fuel Payment.

The UK Government announced in July 2024 its decision to move away from a universal Winter Fuel Payment and to restrict entitlement to those in receipt of Pension Credit and other means-tested benefits from winter 2024-25.

The UK Government’s approach reduced the Block-Grant Adjustment associated with devolution of the UK’s Winter Fuel Payment by an estimated £147 million in 2024-25, over 80% of the cost of our new replacement benefit, Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

Following careful consideration of the options available for Scotland, we had to make the difficult decision to replicate the UK Government’s decision for winter 2024-25.

The timing of the UK Government announcement meant it was not practicable for the Scottish Government to deliver Pension Age Winter Heating Payment in winter 2024-25 through Social Security Scotland. The Department for Work and Pensions therefore made Pension Age Winter Heating Payments in winter 2024-25 to eligible pensioners in Scotland.

On 28 November 2024 the Scottish Government announced that it would bring forward regulations to introduce a universal Pension Age Winter Heating Payment from winter 2025-2026 onwards. We intended to introduce a universal £100 payment to all pensioner households not in receipt of eligible benefits to ensure that all pensioner households received support during the winter months, with those in receipt of eligible benefits continuing to receive a higher amount of support to protect their income. This step was taken in order to protect pensioners in Scotland against the UK Government’s planned cuts to winter fuel payments.

On 9 June 2025, the UK Government announced that they would reverse their earlier decision and would now bring forward legislation that, from winter 2025 onwards, would expand Winter Fuel Payment eligibility to pensioners with an individual income of £35,000 or less per year. Following careful consideration of the options available, we decided to mirror the approach taken by the UK Government for our Pension Age Winter Heating Payment from winter 2025.

5.4 Five Family Payments

Our Five Family Payments - Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Foods and the three Best Start Grant payments - aim to give children the best start in life. They offer financial support to families, both in and out of work, who receive certain benefits.

The Five Family Payments could be worth over £10,000 by the time an eligible child turns six and around £25,000 by the time an eligible child turns 16. This compares to less than £2,000 for families in England and Wales, where support ends when an eligible child turns 4.

Three of the payments are unique to Scotland and there are no limits to the number of children per family who can receive these benefits, unlike some benefits delivered by the UK Government.

The Five Family Payments are making a difference for low-income families, both in and out of work. From launch in 2018 to the end of March 2025 more than £1.3 billion of support has been provided.

The Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland are committed to encouraging take-up of the five family payments for all eligible families in Scotland. Social Security Scotland have been working with stakeholders and delivering ongoing take-up activity including raising awareness of the payments via social media, traditional media and advertising.

Scottish Child Payment

Tackling child poverty is a key priority for the Scottish Government. From its introduction to 31 March 2025, we have invested over £1.1 billion in the Scottish Child Payment: money directly in the pockets of those families who need it most.

In order to further drive take-up of the payment in 2024-25, Social Security Scotland ran a specific Scottish Child Payment campaign, with advertising running on radio, local press and digital channels. This targeted parents and carers throughout Scotland with a particular focus on rural communities and ethnic minorities where take-up of the benefit is lower than for other groups.

Social Security Scotland hosted regular digital events in 2024-25, aimed at promoting Scottish Child Payment and the other Family Payments to stakeholders throughout Scotland. These were attended by individuals from a variety of organisations from the public sector, third sector and private sector.

Best Start Grant

Between launching in December 2018 and 31 March 2025, Best Start Grant has provided over £118 million to families on a low income to help with expenses during their children’s early years.

Social Security Scotland issued a series of news releases aimed at raising awareness of these payments, targeting pregnant women and parents of children due to start school.

Best Start Foods

While Best Start Foods is not under the 2018 Act, it is delivered by Social Security Scotland alongside the other Five Family Payments. Since its launch in August 2019 up to 31 March 2025, Best Start Foods has provided over £69 million to families on a low income to help with expenses during their children’s early years.

Social Security Scotland carried out a range of advertising campaigns throughout 2024-25, including a partnership with Gary Maclean, Scotland’s national chef, aimed at increasing awareness of Best Start Foods in order to drive take-up and giving ideas for meals which can be made with products purchased using a Best Start Foods card.

5.5 Two-Child Limit Payment

In December 2024 we announced plans to take decisive action to offset the UK-wide two-child limit policy in Scotland as part of our work to tackle child poverty. The two-child limit prevents the vast majority of parents or carers from receiving the Universal Credit Child Element for more than two children.

Eradicating child poverty is the national mission of the Scottish Government, and the two-child limit, part of the UK welfare system, has been a key driver of poverty for children and their families in Scotland. Scottish Government modelling published in March 2025 estimated that mitigating the two-child limit will result in 20,000 fewer children living in relative poverty in 2026-27.

The Two-Child Limit Payment (TCLP) is intended to support low-income families in Scotland impacted by the UK Government’s two-child limit policy in Universal Credit. The primary aim of the TCLP is to mitigate, as far as possible, the reduction in income that families receiving UC experience if they are affected by the two-child limit. The payment amount will ,at launch, be equivalent to the UC Child Element for second and subsequent children (£292.81) for each dependant affected by the two-child limit.

Delivered using the top-up powers under section 79 of the 2018 Act the Two Child Limit Payment is being implemented at a speed unprecedented in the UK and even faster than the Scottish Child Payment, which was delivered in under 18 months from announcement. Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary legislation, applications for the Two-Child Limit Payment will be accepted from 2 March 2026. Payments will begin as soon as possible thereafter, subject to an individual’s Universal Credit assessment period.

We are committed to doing all we can to tackle child poverty despite challenging fiscal circumstances. If the UK Government abolishes the two-child limit then the resources that have been committed to offsetting the policy in Scotland can continue to be used on measures to eradicate child poverty in Scotland.

5.6 Disability Benefits

Child Disability Payment

Child Disability Payment is a payment designed to help mitigate the additional costs of caring for a disabled or terminally ill child or young person.

Child Disability Payment replaced Disability Living Allowance for children in Scotland which was previously delivered by the DWP. We have now completed transferring all Disability Living Allowance for Children awards of children and young people in Scotland to Child Disability Payment.

Over £1.1 billion has been paid to families with disabled children since its introduction. As of 31 March 2025, over 89,600 children and young people were receiving Child Disability Payment.

Adult Disability Payment

Applications for Adult Disability Payment opened in March 2022. Adults between 16 and State Pension Age who think they may be eligible can apply for Adult Disability Payment, the Scottish replacement for Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

Adult Disability Payment provides people with support to help with the additional costs related to being disabled or having a long-term health condition or terminal illness. It has been co-designed with disabled people and other stakeholders to ensure that the values of dignity, fairness and respect are embedded throughout. Eligibility for Adult Disability Payment is based on the impact being disabled or having a condition has on daily life, rather than relating to any particular condition.

A positive and compassionate approach is being taken to deliver Adult Disability Payment, ensuring the application process is as straightforward as possible. Indefinite awards have been introduced for severely disabled people with needs which are highly unlikely to change.

People are able to apply for disability assistance in the way that best suits them: either online, by post, over the phone or face-to-face. Of all applications received by 31 March 2025, 70% were made online, 20% were made via phone and 10% were made through a paper form.

Between March 2022 and March 2025, the total value of Adult Disability Payments issued was £3.3 billion. As of 31 March 2025, over 469,000 people were in receipt of Adult Disability Payment.

We commissioned an Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment which reported at the end of July this year and the we are considering the recommendations from the report.

Pension Age Disability Payment

On 24 February 2025, we started the safe and secure transfer of Attendance Allowance awards to Pension Age Disability Payment. This is a payment of up to £441 a month extra to older disabled people over the State Pension Age. It provides assistance to help mitigate the additional costs incurred as a result of being disabled, having a long-term health condition or being terminally ill. The benefit was launched nationally on 22 April 2025 and we remain on track to meet our ambitious timescale of completing all disability and carer benefit case transfer by the end of 2025.

As part of the commitment to a safe and secure transition, we have not made significant changes to the existing Attendance Allowance eligibility criteria when introducing Pension Age Disability Payment. However, we have made a number of changes that will provide disabled people with an improved experience when accessing the support they are entitled to:

• Social Security Scotland offers a multi-channel approach including online, telephone, paper-based and face-to-face applications.
• Within the application, people are able to nominate a friend, relative or organisation to support them when they are dealing with Social Security Scotland.
• Taking a human rights-based approach, Social Security Scotland’s person-centred decision making process ensures everyone is treated with dignity, fairness and respect.
• Supporting information from a professional may be sought where it is needed to support the decision-making process. Social Security Scotland will continue to support people by gathering supporting information, where it is required, if an individual does not have this to hand.

As of 31 March 2025, total payments of around £1.8 million have been paid to older disabled people since the start of the first phase of the pilot in October 2024.

Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance

Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance was introduced on schedule in Spring 2025. This new benefit replaces Disability Living Allowance for adults in Scotland. It is not open to new applications. It is only available to adults with a Disability Living Allowance award that transfers to Social Security Scotland from the Department for Work and Pensions. People eligible for Scottish Adult DLA will be in one of two groups:

• People who were born on or before 8 April 1948 and received a commitment from the DWP on the introduction of Personal Independence Payment in 2013, that they could continue to receive Disability Living Allowance for as long as they were eligible to do so.
• People who were born on or after 9 April 1948 who have not yet had their Disability Living Allowance award transitioned to Personal Independence Payment or Adult Disability Payment.

Once in receipt of Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance, people born on or after 9 April 1948 will be able to apply for Adult Disability Payment if they wish but will not be required to do so. We believe people should be able to make an informed choice as to whether Adult Disability Payment is best for them.

To facilitate a safe and secure transfer of awards, Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance eligibility criteria largely mirrors that of Disability Living Allowance for adults, except where there are clear differences in the Scottish system, for example our more generous terminal illness rules.

The process of transferring approximately 66,000 DLA awards to Scottish Adult DLA began on 24 March 2025 and is due to complete by the end of this year.

Case Transfer

As of 30 April 2025, we had safely and securely transferred the disability benefit awards of more than 509,000 people from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland. Our priority is to ensure the safe and secure transfer of disability and carer benefit awards for more than 700,000 people living in Scotland.

The case transfer process from Disability Living Allowance for Children to Child Disability Payment for eligible children and young people in Scotland is complete, with over 47,000 awards transferred in total.

Transfer from Personal Independence Payment to Adult Disability Payment began on 29 August 2022 and as of 31 March 2025 had been completed for over 342,690 eligible adults in Scotland, over 99% of the total we expect to transfer. 4,470 adults receiving Disability Living Allowance also had their awards transferred to Adult Disability Payment. Case transfer for all remaining Disability Living Allowance awards to Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance began in March 2025.

In February 2024 we began transferring the awards of around 130,000 people receiving Carer’s Allowance onto Carer Support Payment. As of 31 March 2025, 105,195 awards had fully completed the transfer.

We will be transferring the Attendance Allowance awards of approximately 169,000 people to Pension Age Disability Payment throughout 2025.

We remain on track to complete case transfer for all relevant disability and carer benefits by the end of 2025.

5.7 Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act

The Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 (‘the 2025 Act’) was unanimously passed by Parliament on 3 December 2024 and received Royal Assent on 23 January 2025. The Act contains a total of 28 sections covering a broad range of social security topics.

The 2025 Act is intended to achieve continuous improvement of the Scottish system of social security in line with the principles at section 1 of the 2018 Act.

The principles particularly relevant to the 2025 Act are:

• ‘opportunities are to be sought to continuously improve the Scottish social security system in ways which put the needs of those who require assistance first’, and
• ‘the Scottish social security system is to be efficient and deliver value for money’.

The 2025 Act will improve the experience of people using Scotland’s social security system and ensure that it continues to deliver value for money. In particular, it will introduce new rights for people, save money by increasing efficiency, improve the scrutiny of social security and take powers to improve existing benefits. It will also give the Scottish Government new powers to: introduce a payment for people with care experience, as part of keeping ‘The Promise’ and; recover relevant forms of Scottish assistance from awards of compensation in situations where people have received payments as a result of third party negligence.

The 2025 Act represents an essential collective investment in a system from which we may all need help, expected in time to generate savings of around £3.5 million each year.

The first set of commencement regulations – The Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 1 and Saving and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2025 – came into force on 10 May 2025 commencing seven sections of the 2025 Act, further information about these provisions can be found here.

5.8 Up-rating of social security benefits

Before the end of each financial year, Scottish Ministers are legally required, under the terms of sections 86A and 86B of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, to consider the impact of inflation on social security payments when deciding the level at which the relevant payments should be up-rated at the start of each financial year. A report containing this analysis and the approach the Scottish Government intends to address that impact is then laid in Parliament.

Following this review, we announced in December 2024 its intention to increase all social security assistance by 1.7% using the recognised measure of inflation – the 12 month rate of the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) – for September 2024.

The most recent report on the up-rating of social security benefits, along with the necessary legislation required to increase each form of assistance to take into consideration the rate of change in prices in the economy, was laid in Parliament on 24 January 2025. After Parliamentary approval, these new rates took effect in April 2025.

5.9 Appointees

The 2025 Act added new provisions to the 2018 Act to refine the experience for clients represented by an appointee in relation to their benefits, including to allow DWP appointees to be accepted in certain circumstances .

5.10 Fraud and Error

As Social Security Scotland evolves to deliver more benefits than ever before and its caseload expands, the focus is on actively identifying emerging threats and putting in place controls for new and existing fraud and error risks. A review of both the information gathering powers in the Social Security Assistance (Investigation of Offences) (Scotland) Regulations 2020, and accompanying Code of Practice for Investigations is in progress.

A number of improvements have been made to the 2018 Act in this reporting year through the 2025 Act which once implemented will:

• provide the agency with the information gathering powers it needs to robustly estimate the monetary value of fraud and error in the caseload;
• create a statutory liability for those managing another person’s benefits on their behalf;
• create new challenge rights for decisions about whether or not an individual is liable to repay Scottish Ministers overpaid assistance;
• and allow for deductions to be made from disability and carers assistance to repay debts of top-up benefits such as Scottish Child Payment.

Officials continue to work closely with the DWP to understand the implications of the UK Government’s Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill for the devolved social security system.