Take-up Rates of Scottish Benefits: October 2025

Analysis of Take-Up Rate Estimates

Overview

All the figures presented in this publication are estimates and there is more uncertainty for benefits with lower numbers of recipients as there is a higher degree of uncertainty within the eligibility calculations. Therefore changes in estimated take-up rates year to year should be expected.

Benefit take up rates are likely to be influenced by levels of awareness of the benefit, whether the benefit is a regular or one-off payment, the value of the benefit, and the characteristics of recipients (e.g. age profile etc.).

The estimated take-up rates for Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods – the ‘Five Family Payments’ – are generally higher than the other Scottish benefits.

There are a number of possible reasons for this. For example, eligible families can make a combined application for all of the five family payments resulting in a simplified process, and awards can be made automatically for Best Start Grant Early Learning Payment and School Age Payment for clients in receipt of Scottish Child Payments.

There are also more opportunities to reach and inform eligible families about the Five Family Payments through the public services they already access as part of supporting their children to grow, learn and develop. This helps to spread awareness through word of mouth, complementing the wider marketing efforts of Social Security Scotland.

Scottish Child Payment

Results

The estimated take-up rate of Scottish Child Payment for all children aged under 16 in 2024-25 is 94%. This is an increase of five percentage points from last year’s estimate of 89% for 2023-24. This reflects a sustained increase of take-up rates for children aged between 6 and 15 after the eligibility extension in November 2022 meant they became eligible for the first time.

The estimated take-up rate of Scottish Child Payment for children aged under 6 in 2024-25 is 97%, the same as last year’s estimate for 2023-24. This indicates a stable take-up rate and that the vast majority of children aged under 6 in families eligible for Scottish Child Payment go on to receive the payment.

The estimated take-up rate of Scottish Child Payment for children aged 6 to under 16 in 2024-25 is 92%, an increase of seven percentage points from last year’s estimate of 85% for 2023-24.

Overall, these figures reflect lower take-up rates for older children than younger children, however, these have been steadily increasing over time and are expected to continue to increase as awareness of the eligibility extension increases, as observed with take-up rates for younger children. It may be that younger children continue to have higher take-up rates than older children for some time due to a number of reasons, including associated education and health settings having more involvement in benefit awareness than for older children. However, the Scottish Fiscal Commission^[1] expects convergence of these take-up rates over time.

This publication includes estimated take-up rates for Scottish Child Payment at the local authority level for the third time. These estimates range from 89% to 97%

Best Start Grant

Results

The estimated take-up rate for Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment in 2023-24 is 91%. This is an increase on last year’s estimate of 87% for 2022-23. Given that applications can be made between a 9 month window, 2023-24 is the latest year an estimate can be produced for, to ensure all clients counted as eligible have been given their full window to apply. The number of clients estimated to be eligible for the payment declined by around 5% between 2022-23 and 2023-24, but there was still a very similar number of payments made as the year before. This results in a higher take-up rate estimate for 2023-34 than 2022-23. Next year’s publication will cover 2024-25.

The estimated take-up rate for Best Start Grant Early Learning Payment in 2022-23 is 87%, the same as last year’s estimate of 87% for 2021-22. Automation of payments to clients already receiving Scottish Child Payment began in November 2022, which has contributed to a stable take-up rate. There was a broadly proportionate increase (around 2%) in the number of people eligible for the payment and number of payments made, over the two years. Due to the 18 month application window for Early Learning Payment, 2022-23 is the latest full year an estimate can be produced for. Next year’s publication will cover 2023-24.

The estimated take-up rate for Best Start Grant School Age Payment in 2024-25 is 97%, the same as last year’s estimate of 97% for 2023-24 and also 2022-23. Again, this suggests that auto awarded payments for clients in receipt of Scottish Child Payment has stabilised the take-up rate for the payment. For 2024-25, there was a broadly proportionate decline (around 4%) in the number of people eligible for the payment and the number of payments made. Although the estimated take-up rate for the payment has now been 97% for the past three years, for a number of reasons it is unrealistic to expect the take-up rate of any benefit to reach 100%.

Best Start Foods

Results

The estimated take-up rate for Best Start Foods for 2024-25 is 81%. This is a decline from the previous year’s estimate of 84% for 2023-24. The income limit which applied to Best Start Foods eligibility was removed in February 2024 and substantially increased the number of people eligible for the benefit.

Although the number of applications and payments since last year have also increased, these have not increased by as much as eligibility resulting in a lower take-up rate than last year. However, it should be expected that it takes time for applications and payments to catch up with widened eligibility. There has been a steady rise in payments over the course of the year and the take-up rate estimate just for the last six months of 2024-25 is 85%.

Young Carer Grant

Results

There is particular difficulty in accurately estimating the size of the eligible population for Young Carer Grant. This is due to the small size of the eligible population and uncertainty of survey data used to analyse caring prevalence. Therefore estimates of take-up for Young Carer Grant are more uncertain than other estimates and some year on year fluctuation should be expected.

The estimated take-up rate for Young Carer Grant in 2024-25 is 80%, a moderate decrease from last year’s estimate of 87% for 2023-24.

Successful applications to Young Carer Grant increased by around 6% between 2023-24 and 2024-25 while the estimated number of people eligible increased by around 16%.

Job Start Payment

Results

The estimated take-up rate for Job Start Payment in 2024-25 is 19%, a slight decrease on last year’s estimate of 21% for 2023-24. Job Start Payment continues to have the lowest take-up rate of any Scottish benefit.

According to published statistics, there were 730 authorised applications for Job Start Payment in 2024-25 from 1900 total applications. This demonstrates a large number of people eligible for the payment are not applying for it and a large number of people who do apply are deemed not eligible.

Funeral Support Payment

Results

There is a higher degree of uncertainty in the estimate of eligibility for Funeral Support Payment than other benefits because of the need to identify the likelihood of the person responsible for the funeral being eligible. For that reason it is reasonable to expect variation in take-up rates year to year. Another potential reason why take-up of Funeral Support Payment is lower than other benefits is that people may make provision to cover funeral costs themselves, for example with money left in the deceased person's estate, and therefore choose not to claim the benefit.

The estimated take-up rate for Funeral Support Payment in 2024-25 is 61%, a decrease from last year’s estimate of 67% for 2023-24.

The number of people estimated to be eligible increased by around 3% between 2023-24 and 2024-25, while the number of payments made fell by around 14%.

Methodological changes to estimating the take-up rates for Funeral Support Payment were introduced for this year’s publication which we believe has improved the robustness of this estimate.