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

6. Equality Assessment and Data

This section of the report considers how the Scottish social security system has affected the circumstances of people living in households whose income is adversely affected, or whose expenditure is increased, because a member of the household has one or more protected characteristics, as outlined in section 4 of the Equality Act (2010).

The 2018 Act also requires this annual report to include a description of the data used in assessing equality of opportunity. Social Security Scotland collect and publish statistics on applicant diversity and equalities. Unless a protected characteristic forms part of the eligibility criteria for a benefit, information on these characteristics is collected and stored separately from application data. Whilst this information can help us understand who is applying and receiving social security benefits, some of the ways in which having a protected characteristic impacts on finances are indirect (e.g. discrimination affecting access to employment), and it is more difficult to assess the role benefits may play in counteracting these indirect impacts.

• Social Security Scotland Official Statistics are published for benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland. These statistics cover the number of applications, value of payments made and award outcomes. This data can help us understand the reach of the benefit and this is particularly important where the benefit is targeted towards those with a protected characteristic.
• Social Security Scotland Client and Applicant Diversity and Equalities statistics. The latest statistics cover the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 and the latest publication reports on 148,645 applicants during this period. When people submit an application for a Social Security Scotland benefit, they are also asked to complete an equalities monitoring form. This form includes questions regarding a number of protected characteristics. This information relates to the person who makes the application, which is usually the person who would receive the benefit but could alternatively be another person acting on their behalf.
• Equalities data is stored separately from application information and is later linked for statistical analysis. Social Security Scotland uses this information to understand who is using their services and how their processes work for different groups of people. The statistics do not include applicants applying for Carer’s Allowance Supplement, Child Winter Heating Payment, or Winter Heating Payment. As the statistics report on applicants, they do not include clients whose case has been transferred.
• The Social Security Scotland Client Survey was sent to all clients who had received a decision or payment between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. The survey asks clients about their experience of applying for a benefit, interacting with Social Security and receiving payments. This data helps us to understand the experience and impact of benefits by equality group.
• Scottish Government policy evaluations cover the implementation and impact of benefits. This year, we have published evaluations on the case transfer process, those moving from Child Disability Payment to Adult Disability Payment, the Accessible Vehicles Scheme, and the Five Family payments. Evaluations draw on evidence from a variety of sources including the data sources above and research with individuals who have applied for these benefits.

We can consider applications and awards for benefits that are directly focused on helping those with a protected characteristic. The Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment is made to households with a woman who is, or has recently been, pregnant. Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, 13,560 people were paid, with £7.2 million added to family budgets. Of the applications for Pregnancy and Baby Payment, 44% were estimated to be for a first birth and 56% for a subsequent birth.

Best Start Foods launched in Scotland in August 2019 to replace the UK Healthy Start voucher scheme. It provides pregnant women and families with children under the age of three, who are in receipt of certain benefits, payments to purchase healthy foods using a payment card. Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, 48,565 individuals were paid for Best Start Foods.

Some of our benefits are directly designed to help people with extra costs associated with being disabled or having a long term health condition. Child Disability Payment provides money to help with extra care and mobility costs that a disabled child or young person might have. It replaces Disability Living Allowance for Children and was the first application-based disability benefits to be introduced by the Scottish Government. Including payments made to those who had case transferred by March 2025, the total value of support provided through Child Disability Payments issued between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 was over £504 million. As of 31 March 2025, it is estimated that 89,400 children and young people were in receipt of Child Disability Payment.

Child Winter Heating Payment is an automatic payment for disabled children and young people under 19 who also receive a qualifying benefit. In winter 2024-25 39,590 payments had been made for children or young people with a total value of £9.9 million. The evaluation of Child Winter Heating Payment found that the payment had helped mitigate the experience of financial difficulty or insecurity and allowed families to better meet the healthcare needs of their disabled child or young person.

Ethnicity

Approval rates vary according to benefit type and reported ethnicity. Across all benefits, 85% of applicants who completed the equalities monitoring form were ‘White’ and 6% were another ethnicity including ‘Asian’, ‘African’, ‘Caribbean or Black’, ‘Mixed or multiple ethnic groups’. The remaining 8% of applicants chose ‘Prefer not to say’. Applicants who chose ‘Prefer not to say’ had the highest overall approval rates at 78%. Overall, there was a five percent point difference between the highest and lowest approval rates for applicants who told us their ethnicity – 64% for ‘African’ and ‘Other ethnic group’ applicants compared to 59% for ‘Asian’ and ‘Caribbean or Black’ applicants.

Age

Some of our Social Security Payments are targeted at families with children and this is reflected in the age profile. The majority of Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods applicants (98%) were under 45 years of age^[1], and 89% of Scottish Child Payment applicants were under 45 years of age^[2].

Another benefit that is targeted towards young people is the Young Carer Grant. In 2024-25, 38% of applications were made by 16 year olds, 37% by 17 year olds and 23% by 18 year olds. A total of 4,155 applications had been authorised in 2024-25. The percentage of applications authorised was broadly similar across age groups: 68% for those aged 16, 67% for those aged 17, and 69% for those aged 18.

Job Start Payment is also targeted towards young people. Of applications made between April 2024 and March 2025, 3% were from those aged 16 to 17, 47% for those aged 18 to 21 and 46% for those aged 22 to 24. Approval rates for age bands with available data show 27% for those aged 16-17, 36% of applications were authorised for those aged 18-21 and 44% for those aged 22-24.

Transgender

Across all benefits, around 1% of applicants who completed the equalities monitoring form were transgender. Overall, the approval rate for these applicants was 57% compared to 63% for applicants who were not transgender. The benefits with the highest proportion of transgender applicants were Job Start Payment at 2%, and Adult Disability Payment and Young Carer Grant at 1%.

Religion or belief

Across all benefits, 58% of applicants who completed the equalities monitoring form said they had no religion, followed by 12% Prefer not to say, 11% as Roman Catholic, 9% as Church of Scotland, 4% as Other Christian, 4% as Muslim and 1% were another religion.

Gender

Of those who completed the equalities monitoring form, women made up 65% of applicants and 27% of applicants were men. Roughly 1% of applicants described their gender as ‘in another way’ and the remaining 7% chose ‘prefer not to say’. Overall approval rates for women were 67% which compared to 55% for men and 58% for ‘in another way’. Overall approval rates were highest for applicants choosing ‘Prefer not to say’ at 78%. At the benefit level, approval rates varied. For most benefits, applicants who chose ‘Prefer not to say’ had the highest approval rates, while men had the lowest.

Of those who responded to the client survey about the impact of benefit payments, women were more likely than men to give a high rating (8-10) for statements relating to whether the payment helped them to pay for what they needed, control their finances and how much the payment had made a difference to their life.

Sexual orientation

Overall, of the applications who completed the equalities monitoring form, 83% were Heterosexual, 3% were Bisexual, 2% were Gay and Lesbian, and 12% of applicants chose ‘prefer not to say’. Overall approval rates were highest for applicants choosing ‘Prefer not to say’ at 74%, followed by Heterosexual at 63%, Bisexual at 58%, ‘In another way’ at 57%, and ‘Gay or Lesbian’ at 54%.

At the benefit level, Job Start Payment had the highest rate of applicants that were Bisexual or ‘Gay or Lesbian’ at 9%, while Funeral Support Payment had the highest proportion of applicants choosing ‘Prefer not to say’ at 36%.

Physical or mental health condition or illness

Around 49% of applicants who completed the equalities monitoring form had a physical or mental health condition or illness expected to last 12 months or more. This compared to 39% who did not have a condition or illness and 12% who chose ‘prefer not to say’. Approval rates were higher for those who did not have a condition or illness compared to those who did, at 71% and 57% respectively. This is due to there being a higher proportion of Adult Disability Payment applicants in the statistics, which has lower approval rates than most of the other benefits. The overall approval rate for those who chose ‘prefer not to say’ was 75%.