Maximising incomes and increasing access to benefits

Ensuring social security benefits are accessible to all who are eligible will be vital in helping people on low incomes deal with the aftermath of the pandemic, Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison has said.

Scotland’s new benefit take-up strategy outlines plans to make sure that nobody misses out on financial support due to a lack of awareness or barriers to applying.

Actions from the strategy, which builds on learning from the first in 2019, include:

• working with partners to improve targeting of information and advice
• challenging myths and stigma around claiming benefits
• continuing to remove barriers to accessing social security in Scotland

The Scottish Government will also explore the introduction of automatic payment for certain devolved social security benefits to make it as easy as possible for people to maximise their incomes.

Ms Robison said: “Social security is a collective investment in building a better and fairer society and part of that is ensuring people are aware of, and can access, the financial support to which they are entitled.

“The pandemic has made us even more aware of the importance of a strong social security safety net – alongside skills, employment and childcare support – and our new benefit take-up strategy sets out how we will ensure we reach those in need.

“We have seen good levels of take up of the Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Payments, which support families on low incomes, with initial estimates ranging between 77% and 84%. As part of our national mission to tackle poverty we are determined that everybody should be able to access payments they are due.

“We will invest £10 million over this Parliament to increase advice services with a focus on providing these in accessible settings and targeting families.

“This investment will support our ambition to maximise incomes, tackle poverty and improve wellbeing, and this will be more vital than ever as we continue our recovery from COVID-19.”

The 2021 Benefit Take Up Strategy builds on learning from the first strategy, published in 2019.