SNP MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Gordon MacDonald, has welcomed the Scottish Government’s rollout of financial support for families of children with a disability.
The new payment, which provides money to help with the extra costs of caring for a child with a disability or ill-health condition, opens for applications across the country today.
For the first time anywhere in the UK, disability benefit applicants can apply for Child Disability Payment online, as well as by phone, post or face-to-face.
As the Child Disability Payment replaces the UK Government’s Disability Living Allowance for children, this is for new applications. Those already receiving Disability Living Allowance for children do not need to apply.
These approximately 52,000 current cases are being automatically transferred in phases from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland and will be completed by spring 2023.
This is the first of three complex disability benefits to be introduced by the Scottish Government, with Adult Disability Payment to start next year.
Commenting on the rollout Gordon MacDonald, said: “The Child Disability Payment is a significant milestone for Scotland’s new social security system.
“I’m extremely pleased that families across Edinburgh will benefit from a simplified and much less stressful system that allows them to apply for the payment online, by phone, by post or face to face. For too long families have faced an overly complicated process that feels like it’s been designed to keep them out.
“I’m glad that people both here in Edinburgh, and right across Scotland, are benefitting from an SNP Government that is putting dignity, fairness and respect at the heart of its social security system.”
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