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

4. Performance of the system and delivery of the Charter

4.1 Duty to promote take-up

As set out in the 2018 Act, Scottish Ministers have a statutory duty to promote take-up of devolved entitlements. As part of this duty, the Scottish Government must periodically publish a Benefit Take-Up Strategy. The strategy that applies to this reporting period was published in October 2021. In 2025-26, the Scottish Government, together with Social Security Scotland, continued to deliver on the principles set out in the 2021 Benefit Take-Up Strategy through, for example, delivering tailored communications and marketing activity, engagement with stakeholders, provision of application support through Social Security Scotland’s Local Delivery Service and by funding the Social Security Independent Advocacy Service. The next Benefit Take‑Up Strategy was laid before the Scottish Parliament and published on 21 October 2026.

In August 2025, the Scottish Government published its 2025-2026 Seldom-Heard Groups Action Plan in response to commissioned research, as well as a Citizens’ Panel on the impacts of stigma on benefit take-up. The Action Plan was developed in collaboration with Social Security Scotland and followed a commitment within the 2021-26 Benefit Take-Up Strategy to better understand and then act on the evidence of barriers to take-up experienced by seldom-heard groups.

The Action Plan outlined the practical ways in which the Scottish Government, together with Social Security Scotland, tackle barriers to take-up faced by seldom-heard communities by better listening to, engaging with, and supporting these communities to access entitlements. Actions in this plan included the trauma-informed training pilot within Social Security Scotland which was completed and learning from this action plan has informed our 2026-2031 take-up strategy.

In 2025-26, we invested more than £610,000 in Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships (WAHPs), which embed welfare right advisors in participating GP practices, allowing patients to be referred for advice and support on a range of issues, including social security entitlement. This tapered funding was intended to enable participating Local Authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships to mainstream the WAHPs model within their areas, following the completion of a Scottish Government funded ‘test and learn’ pilot in 2024. The Improvement Service published evaluations from the ’test and learn’ pilot in urban and rural and island communities, as well as a ‘lessons learned’ from the pilot.

The Scottish Government developed the current funding approach in collaboration with delivery partners and agreed to provide additional tapered investment beyond the end of the ‘test and learn’ pilot to support local areas to sustainably transition responsibility for funding WAHPs over subsequent years. This has allowed delivery partners to take the decision on whether to direct funding to mainstream WAHPs within their local income maximisation services beyond the pilot phase. We remain committed to working with all partners to ensure a smooth transition of funding responsibilities ahead of the planned completion of the tapered funding model at the end of the 2026-27 financial year.

4.2 Independent Advocacy

Scottish Ministers are required, by section 10 of the 2018 Act, to make independent advocacy support available to disabled people who need such support to engage with the Scottish social security system.

The Social Security Independent Advocacy Service launched in 2022 and was delivered under contract by Voiceability from 2022 to January 2026. Upon its expiry the delivery of the service was taken over by Advice Direct Scotland (ADS) following an open procurement exercise. This contract will run until 2028, with the potential for two one-year extensions beyond this.

The Social Security Independent Advocacy Service can be accessed by any disabled person applying for Social Security Scotland benefits, or by anyone applying for benefits on behalf of a disabled person or child, if they consider that they need an advocate’s help to engage with Social Security Scotland. The service is free to use, and people do not need to have a medical diagnosis to access it. As such, it is making social security more accessible to disabled people in Scotland and supporting them to be more involved in the processes and decisions that affect them.

Support is available at any point during the process of applying for or receiving benefits from Social Security Scotland. For instance, this could be from before an application is submitted or when requesting a re-determination or an appeal.

As of 31 March 2026, the service has provided advocacy support to more than 16,500 people in over 19,000 cases (some people have engaged with the service for support with multiple entitlements). Most referrals made to the service are for support to apply for Scottish disability benefits, specifically Adult Disability Payment, but the service remains open and available to any disabled person requiring support across all Scottish benefits.

4.3 Scottish Commission on Social Security

The Scottish Commission on Social Security (SCoSS), established in January 2019, is an independent advisory Non-Departmental Public Body with a primary purpose to undertake scrutiny of the Scottish social security system.

SCoSS produces its own annual report and business plan which can be found on the SCoSS website. In 2025-26 it produced scrutiny reports on:

• Winter Heating Assistance (Pension Age) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025;
• Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025;
• The Two Child Limit Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026;
• The Social Security (Residence and Presence Requirements) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2025;
• Social Security (Residence and Presence Requirements) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2026;
• Care Leaver Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026; and
• Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2026.

The minutes of Board and sub-committee meetings and all scrutiny reports for 2025-26 are available on the SCoSS website.

4.4 Our Charter and the Charter Measurement Framework

The Charter Measurement Framework sets out how the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland assess performance against the commitments in Our Charter and the principles established in the 2018 Act, including treating people with dignity, fairness and respect. The Framework supports transparency, accountability and continuous improvement across Scotland’s social security system.

Following the first statutory review of Our Charter, it now includes commitments that set out more clearly what people can expect when applying for benefits, how feedback and complaints are used to improve services, and how Social Security Scotland demonstrates its commitment to delivering services with dignity, fairness and respect.

The updated Framework published in November 2024 introduced a revised set of measures to better reflect clients’ experiences and the way Social Security Scotland delivers services in practice. These are used in ‘Measuring Our Charter’ publications and are intended to provide clearer evidence of progress against Charter commitments while reducing duplication and improving accessibility.