Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018: progress report 2025 to 2026

2. Purpose of Report

This report is published under section 20 and section 87 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 (the 2018 Act) which require Scottish Ministers to report annually on the performance of the Scottish social security system and on exercise of right to appeal. This report covers the period from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026.

It sets out:

• what has been done in the past year to meet the expectations on Scottish Ministers stipulated in the Social Security Charter.
• an assessment of how the Scottish social security system has affected the circumstances of people whose finances are affected by a person in the household having a protected characteristic and a description of the data used in assessing equality of opportunity (as defined in section 4 and section 20 of the Equality Act 2010).
• the number of people who had the right to appeal against a Scottish social security decision and the number of people who exercised that right to appeal.
• an update on delivery of duties listed in Part 1 of the 2018 Act, such as in relation to the Charter, the strategy to promote take up, and work of the Scottish Commission on Social Security (SCoSS).

The report should be read alongside the annual report published by Social Security Scotland.