More than 4500 payments have been made to young carers across Scotland since the benefit launched in October 2019.
Figures released today reveal a total of £1.4 million in Young Carer Grant payments have been made up to 31 October 2021.
Applications were received from young people living in all local authorities. The highest number of applications were from Glasgow City, which accounts for 15% of all applications received to the end of October 2021. The next highest areas were from North Lanarkshire, Fife and South Lanarkshire.
The first benefit of its kind in the UK, Young Carer Grant is a payment that can be applied for once a year by young carers aged 16, 17, and 18 who care for someone who is normally paid a qualifying disability benefit.
The payment is a flat rate of £308.15 and acknowledges the young person’s carer role helping them take part in opportunities that are the norm for many other young people.
Carers can decide how to spend the money, for example, on new clothes, a music or TV streaming service or anything else that helps them take a break from their day to day caring responsibilities.
Young carers who previously received the grant and still meet the eligibility criteria can re-apply 12 months from the date of their previous successful application.
To check eligibility and apply visit mygov.scot or call free on 0800 182 2222.
The Scottish Government’s next benefit, Adult Disability Payment (ADP), will open for new applications in pilot areas from 21 March 2022.
This new payment, to be administered by Social Security Scotland, will replace Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA), which are currently delivered by the UK Government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Adults of working age with a disability or health condition, who are not already in receipt of PIP or DLA, and living in Dundee City, Perth and Kinross and the Western Isles local authority areas, will be the first to be able to apply from this date.
Further council areas will be introduced in phases until Adult Disability Payment rolls out nationwide from August 2022.
Individuals with ongoing awards of PIP or DLA do not need to apply for Adult Disability Payment. Their awards will be transferred automatically to the new Scottish system from August 2022, with no break in entitlement or payment.
Legislation to introduce the new benefit was laid before the Scottish Parliament on Friday.
Minister for Social Security Ben Macpherson said: “Adult Disability Payment will be the twelfth Scottish benefit to be delivered by the Scottish Government, since we gained limited powers over social security and created Social Security Scotland in 2018.
“ADP will also be the most complex and largescale Scottish benefit yet, reaching up to a forecasted 339,000 people once the entitlements of all Scottish PIP and DLA recipients are transferred from the DWP.
“We know people have found applying for DWP disability benefits stressful in the past. That is why we have listened to their experiences as we have designed our new system, and we are committed to doing things differently.
“We are introducing an improved application process and, in contrast to the DWP system, we are removing the burden from individuals to provide supporting information, so that the onus will instead be on Social Security Scotland to collect the information we require. Our new, person-centred decision making process will ensure everyone is treated with dignity, fairness and respect.
“Importantly, we have abolished assessments in the form currently undertaken by the DWP. Instead, and only where required, we will hold person-centred consultations between the person and a Social Security Scotland health or social care practitioner, starting from a position of trust. Our consultations will not involve functional examinations.
“Another key difference in our new system will be around the definition of terminal illness. We will follow the judgement of clinicians instead of being tied to fixed periods of life expectancy, and anyone with a terminal illness will be fast tracked.
“From the outset, the eligibility criteria for ADP applicants will remain mostly the same as existing DWP disability benefits, as will payment values for awards, so that we do not create a two-tier system with varying rules whilst Scottish PIP and DLA recipients are transferred to Social Security Scotland.
“We are committed to undertaking an independent review of ADP within a year of its full introduction, to consider the eligibility criteria, gather feedback from people who’ve applied and collect data to inform any proposed changes.
“We have also worked with people with lived experience and relevant organisations to develop all aspects of the application process, and make it easy and inclusive for people to access support they are entitled to. We are offering a range of ways to make an application, including online, by post, over the phone or face-to-face. Social Security Scotland local delivery teams will also be available to provide assistance.
“People in Scotland with existing DWP awards do not need to be concerned about reapplying or going through an application process again. They will be transferred automatically to Social Security Scotland and we will write in advance, so people know what to expect. Our focus on safe and secure delivery will ensure that everyone continues to get the payments they receive, when they expect to.”
Families on low incomes are facing a worrying winter ahead as today’s figures show inflation has hit 5.1%. The rising cost of utilities are especially challenging given they take up such a large share of low-income families’ budgets.
The Government recently announced that benefits will be uprated by 3.1% in April which will close some of the growing gap between people’s incomes and their costs. However, this does not address the immediate hardship families are experiencing this winter.
In October, the Office for Budget Responsibility projected inflation to peak at 4.4% by April but today’s 5.1% exceeds that level.
New JRF analysis based on OBR forecasts shows that should inflation be 4.4% by next April:
Around 100,000 individuals are at risk of falling into deep poverty (below 50% of median income after housing costs) due to benefit uprating being less than inflation in April
Around 7 in 10 of whom live in households that contain children
Around half live in working households
Given today’s high inflation figures, this could be an underestimate and even more individuals may be at risk of deep poverty.
The outlook is especially stark for people who are out of work and reliant on social security to make ends meet. These families have already experienced a £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit. This also comes after a decade of cuts and freezes to social security which has left the system wholly unable to provide the support millions of people need.
Katie Schmuecker, Deputy Director of Policy & Partnerships at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said:“It is deeply concerning that families on low incomes, who are already struggling to make their budgets stretch, are at risk of being pulled deeper into poverty. Prices are rising sharply and support available to people is inadequate.
“Everyone in our country should be able to afford the basics yet there is no sign of any respite on the horizon for families struggling to keep their heads above water. Too many people who are being hit by rising energy bills and increasing food prices are forced to ask themselves what essentials they will go without this winter.
“In a country like ours, social security should, at a bare minimum, enable people to meet their needs with dignity. Unless the Government urgently strengthens support, we will see more and more people being pulled deeper into poverty and debt in the months ahead. This is not only harmful but also completely avoidable.”
A £510 million funding boost targeted at fraudsters lying to the DWP about their benefit claims has been announced by the UK Government.
The money will be used to improve the department’s capability and capacity to detect and deter benefit fraud and catch fraudsters, recovering more taxpayer money that funds essential public services.
This crackdown will include 2,000 trained specialists to review claims by carrying out property checks, following up earning declarations of self-employed claimants and cross-checking bank details.
It builds on the department’s highly skilled and agile counter-fraud team and investigators in cyber security and serious and organised crime.
They led government action to tackle organised crime groups seeking to exploit support during the pandemic, shutting down systematic attacks on the benefit system and preventing at least £1.9 billion in benefits from being paid to people trying to scam the system.
Thérèse Coffey, Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, said: “Investing in measures to fight fraud protects honest taxpayers’ money and stops criminals funding their illicit activities off the back of our welfare system.
“We know the characteristics of a suspicious claim. This half a billion-pound cash injection is a clear message to fraudsters and criminal gangs. Anyone trying to con us will get caught out.”
A recent case handled by the counter-fraud team supported a high value fraud bust with police in Stratford-upon-Avon. Operation Iggy was a sting on a woman who had made 14 Universal Credit claims using false identity documents for a total of £270,000.
She was arrested, with the false documents found in her house, and sentenced to 30 months in prison, with DWP now recovering the money.
SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald, has welcomed the First Minister’s announcement that the Scottish Child Payment will be doubled from April 2022.
The announcement will see at least 7555 eligible children across Edinburgh receiving £20 per week per child from spring next year, with more than 106,000 children across Scotland immediately benefitting from the increased payment.
Since the launch of the Scottish Government payment on 15 February 2021, £2,036,820 has been issued in payments to families in Edinburgh.
It is now expected that over 400,000 children could be eligible for the doubled payment by the end 2022, which is when the benefit, which is unique in the UK, will be extended to children under the age of 16.
SNP MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Gordon MacDonald said: “I am delighted that at least 7555 children across Edinburgh will have their Scottish Child Payment doubled in just four months time. This will give £20 per child per week to 7555 children in Edinburgh – four times the amount originally demanded by campaigners.
“The Scottish Government’s national mission to tackle child poverty is absolute – with £2,036,820 having been provided to families across Edinburgh since February, and almost £32 million across Scotland as a whole.
“The doubling of the Scottish Child Payment to £20 is the type of bold action that makes a real difference to people’s lives and shows how focussed the Scottish Government is on meeting Scotland’s Child Poverty targets.
“Once again, the tale of two governments is striking. While the SNP are doubling the Scottish Child Payment to lift thousands of children out of poverty, the Tories at Westminster have just cut £20 per week from many of the same families – knowingly pushing thousands of families into poverty.
“The people in Edinburgh deserve the chance to escape the damaging policies we get under Westminster control and get the chance to choose a better path, one with the full powers that an independent Scotland would bring and allow us to build a fairer society.”
The Scottish Child Payment will be doubled to £20 per week per child from April 2022, the First Minister has announced. The decision has been welcomed by poverty camapigners.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that more than 105,000 children will immediately benefit from the increased payment, which supports low income families with children aged under 6.
First introduced in February 2021 as a £10 per week payment designed to tackle child poverty, it provides regular, additional financial support for eligible families.
The benefit, which is unique in the UK, will be fully rolled out to children under the age of 16 by the end of 2022, subject to data on qualifying benefits being received from the Department of Work and Pensions. It is expected over 400,000 children could be eligible for the doubled payment from that point.
From 2023/24 it will represent an annual investment in tackling child poverty of around £360 million a year. The increase to £20 per week further underlines the Scottish Government’s national mission to tackle child poverty.
The First Minister said: “The Scottish Government is determined to lift children out of poverty.
“Of the £2 billion a year that the Scottish Government invests to support people on low incomes, over £670 million is already targeted at children. Through the range of new payments delivered by Social Security Scotland, low income families receive, in the early years of each child’s life, £5,000 of additional financial support.
“At the heart of this is the Scottish Child Payment – the only payment of its kind anywhere in the UK, designed solely to lift children out of poverty and give them better lives. The £10 per week payment for eligible children under age 6 will be extended to all eligible children under 16 at the end of 2022; and we committed to doubling the payment to £20 per child per week within this Parliamentary term.
“I am proud that our budget will confirm that we will double the Scottish Child Payment from the start of the new financial year. This increase to £20 per child per week will reach over 105,000 children under age 6 in just four months’ time. When we extend the Scottish Child Payment to all under 16s at the end of next year, over 400,000 children and their families will be eligible.
“This is the boldest and most ambitious anti-poverty measure anywhere in the UK. Delivering it isn’t easy. It will involve hard choices elsewhere in our budget. But it is a choice we are opting to make.
“Eradicating child poverty is essential if we are to build the strongest foundation for Scotland’s future. And that is what we are determined to do.”
Scottish Government Minister and Scottish Green Party Co-Leader Patrick Harvie said: “With rising inflation, energy costs and the recent UK Government cuts to Universal Credit, further action to tackle child poverty could not have been more urgent.
“I’m therefore delighted that the Scottish Government has been able to double the Scottish Child Payment from April, just months after our policy of free bus travel for children and young people goes live.
“These bold actions deliver on key commitments made in the cooperation deal between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party, and will make a real difference to families across Scotland.”
Scottish Greens MSP Lorna Slater said the decision will be pivotal to tackling child poverty in Lothian.
Ms Slater said: “With a new Covid variant, rising energy costs, inflation and the catastrophic impact of a Tory Brexit being felt, it is more important than ever that we do everything we can to help people that are being hit by Westminster’s cuts and austerity.
“That is why I’m delighted that we will see the Scottish Child Payment doubled in the forthcoming Scottish budget. This will be pivotal to tackling child poverty and will be welcomed by families that are feeling stretched, particularly those that have been hit by Boris Johnson’s punishing Universal Credit cut.
“With Greens in government we are delivering for people and the planet and making a real difference to families in Lothian and beyond.”
“That is why we are introducing free bus travel for everyone under 22 from January, extending free school meals to all primary school pupils and ensuring that government contracts pay the real living wage. We will continue to work towards a fairer, greener Scotland.”
Social Security Scotland delivers a number of benefits for families. These include Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment, Early Learning Payment, School Age Payment and Best Start Foods.
The newly doubled Scottish Child Payment, together with the three Best Start Grant payments and Best Start Foods, could give families up to £8,400 by the time their first child turns 6.
Campaigners have welcomed the announcement:
Chris Birt, Associate Director for Scotland at Joseph Rowntree Foundation said:“This is very welcome news that will provide vital support for families with young children following what is expected to be a challenging winter as the cost of living continues to rise. Doubling the payment for older children cannot come soon enough.
“As we noted in our Poverty in Scotland report, this investment alone will not be enough to meet the interim child poverty targets, but it is an important step in the right direction and will make a real difference to families.”
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.”
Foysol Choudhury MSP has called on the Scottish Government to be ambitious in its approach to Social Security.
During a Holyrood debate ‘’Accessing Scottish Social Security Benefits’’, he called for the rise of the Scottish Child Payment to £40 a week in 2022/23, given that over a quarter of Scottish children now live in poverty in Scotland. He also called for a raise to the 20-metre rule. Currently, if you can walk one step over 20 metres you cannot access the enhanced rate of mobility support.
MS Society Scotland has also called for the extension of the rule say that it has acted as a barrier to people with MS accessing social security benefits.
Mr Choudhury asked if the Government was prepared to change the eligibility criteria.
Commenting after the debate, Foysol Choudhury MSP said: “Scotland needs to be ambitious. The devolution of welfare powers gives us the chance to shape what kind of society do we want to be.
‘’The chance to restore dignity and respect to the heart of the social security system, yet now we know that the delay of the SNP has only halted the progress and affects the potential benefit takeup for Scotland.’’
Foysol Choudhury’s speech in full:
Thank you Presiding Officer and it gives me great pleasure to speak in today’s debate.
Presiding Officer, the devolution of welfare powers gives us the chance to shape what kind of society do we want to be. The chance to restore dignity and respect to the heart of the social security system, yet now we know that the delay of the SNP has only halted the progress and affects the potential benefit takeup for Scotland.
There can be no doubt that Covid-19 has hit low-income families and the most vulnerable disproportionately hard, deepening poverty and dragging more families into financial insecurity. Today half of the families in poverty have a member who is a disabled person and even before the pandemic, child poverty rates were high and projected to rise further.
The over next decade, Scotland must be bold, must be willing to use the full levers of powers to transform if we are to meet our targets on child poverty and live up to our ambitions of being a nation that respects, protects and fulfils human rights and where we can all achieve our potential.
We can start of course with the Scottish Child payment, something that has continued to be on the minds of the chamber thanks to the efforts of my friend and colleague, Pam Duncan Glancy.
Just over a quarter of Scottish children live in poverty in Scotland. 260,000 children, right now in 2021. That’s something that should shame us all. We talk a lot, but this Parliament needs to seriously get ambitious for Scotland’s children.
Let’s raise the Scottish Child Payment to £40 a week in 2022/23. Let’s ensure that every kid in Scotland have a good quality of life, without the people that love them having to worry about where the money is coming from.
Even with the full rollout, the Scottish Government is likely to miss their interim child poverty target by six percentage points – leaving an extra 50,000 children in poverty. From the end of the furlough, the cruel cut to Universal Credit thanks to the Tories, and the Scottish Government delays to rolling out and increasing the Child Payment have squeezed Scottish family incomes when they are already having to deal with the economic shocks dealt by the pandemic. We can and must do better.
Presiding Officer, for those with lifelong conditions, they look to this chamber and ask, ‘how are you going to defend me’?
Those with MS for example are looking for hope. The MS Society, Labour and many organisations are all calling for the removal of the 20-metre rule from the proposed Adult Disability Payment. The Scottish Government are replacing PIP with ADP and as part of this new benefit, the Government has largely replicated the PIP eligibility criteria, including retaining the 20-metre rule as part of the assessment criteria for ADP.
A Citizens Advice Scotland Survey in 2021 found that a majority of Bureaux advisers working to help people with disabilities navigate the social security system agree that the 20 metre rule should be extended to 50 metres.
Presiding Officer, for those who don’t know that the 20-metre rule is, it was introduced as part of the eligibility criteria to access Personal Independence Payment. Under the rule, if you can walk one step over 20 metres you cannot access the enhanced rate of mobility support.
Fatigue, both physical and mental is one of the most debilitating symptoms of MS and other neurological conditions. The rule does not consider the severity of fatigue many will experience after walking 20 metres.
So, I would be grateful if the Government can respond to concerns raised by those who have MS. Is the Government prepared to change the eligibility criteria. Because those claiming disability payments deserve dignity and respect.
Presiding Officer, the social security system we shape in this Parliament must ensure no one is held back by poverty and inequality. Scottish Labour would use all the powers we have here in Scotland to make sure that people have the support they need to participate fully in society.
The social security system Labour would build to secure the wellbeing and human rights of everyone and seek to guarantee a Minimum Income Standard that no one would fall below. Having a strong, adequate and automated SSS will lead to higher levels of takeup.
Scottish Labour will build a social security system based on the principles of Adequacy, Respect and Simplicity. Those are the principles that will guide me as we come together to shape our Social security for Scotland to ensure it works for all.
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.”
JRF Study reveals scale of debt crisis among low-income households
Number of low-income households in arrears has tripled since pandemic hit
4 in 10 working-age low-income households fell behind on bills during pandemic
Millions are behind on rent and bills and have had to take on new borrowing
JRF calls for urgent action to support low-income families through cost-of-living crisis and prevent worsening wealth inequality
A large-scale study of households on low incomes has revealed the extent of the debt crisis hanging over the UK’s poorest families as the country braces to weather a cost-of-living crisis.
The analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) looks at households in the bottom 40% of incomes in the UK – those with a household income of £24,752 or less. This represents around 11.6 million households.
It estimates that 3.8 million such households are in arrears with household bills, totaling £5.2bn. 950,000 are in rent arrears; 1.4 million are behind on council tax bills; and 1.4 million are behind on electricity and gas bills. 33% of low-income households are now in arrears, which is triple the 11% estimated by a similar study prior to the pandemic.
Working-age households on low incomes (those aged 18-64) have been particularly hard hit: 44% are in arrears. For households aged 18-24 this rises to almost three-quarters (71%) of people being in arrears.
The survey shows clear signs that the profound financial impact of the pandemic has dragged families who were previously just about managing into arrears on essential bills. A large majority of households who are now behind on their household bills (87%) said that they were always or often able to pay all their bills in full and on time before the pandemic hit.
This is not surprising given people on low incomes were more likely to lose income during the pandemic due to job loss, reduced hours or being furloughed. Even before recent energy price rises began to bite, six in ten households on low incomes (62%) reported that their costs increased during the pandemic.
The other clear trend in the survey is the increased borrowing taken on by households on low incomes. Around 4.4million such households have taken on new or increased borrowing, and their total amount of borrowing comes to an estimated £9.5bn. 69% of households with new or increased borrowing are also in arrears.
The study highlights groups that have been hit particularly hard. Over half of the households in the following groups have been pulled into arrears:
Families with children (55%),
Households in London (55%),
Households with a person under 45 answering the survey (56%),
Black, Asian and minority ethnic households (58%)
Many families on low incomes are still reeling from the huge £20 per week cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit earlier in the month. It is worrying that the survey was conducted in September when many of the households surveyed received the uplift which has now been removed.
Energy bills and other costs are continuing to rise, with the price of energy projected to soar further in the coming months. An increase in National Insurance contributions next April is another extra cost many working people will face.
Of the households surveyed who receive Universal Credit, 40% are not confident they will be able to pay their bills in full and on time, while 35% don’t think they will be able to avoid taking on more debt. Half (50%) of these households say they do not feel confident they can find a job or work more hours, calling into question the Government’s insistence on jobs as the only solution.
The comparison between how poorer and wealthier households have fared during the pandemic is striking. The Bank of England found that wealthier households have tended to accumulate savings during the pandemic.
These households were more likely to stay in work and to be able to work from home, reducing daily costs, and to save money during lockdown due to enforced saving. Homeowners also benefited from rising house prices.
JRF is urging the Government to put in place a package of support at the Budget to ease pressure on low-income households and prevent further debt.
As well as urging the Government to reinstate the £20 in Universal Credit, the report also recommends that the Government provide at least £500m additional grant funding via the Household Support Fund for targeted debt relief.
It is also essential to address the systemic drivers of debt including through writing off Tax Credit debts when people move onto Universal Credit and addressing Universal Credit advance repayments that many households have no option but to take on during the five-week wait for the first payment.
This flaw in the design of the benefit has long been criticised by food banks and anti-poverty groups for causing ‘destitution by design.’
Katie Schmuecker, Deputy Director for Policy & Partnerships at JRF said: “There is a debt crisis hanging over millions of families on low incomes. Behind these figures are parents gripped by anxiety, wondering how they will put food on their children’s plates and pay the gas bill; young people forced to rely on friends to help cover their rent and avoid eviction.
“While many households on higher incomes have enjoyed increased savings and rising house prices during the pandemic, people on low incomes are under serious financial pressure that shows no sign of abating. As a society, we believe in protecting one another from harm. As costs pile up and incomes have been cut, we urgently need to rethink the support in place for people at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis.
“The Budget is about priorities. We know the Chancellor is capable of taking bold action to protect people from harm when it is required. Reinstating the £20 per week increase to Universal Credit and boosting funding for councils to tackle debt must be priorities in next week’s Budget. We must give families the firm foundations they need to flourish and take part in our economic recovery.”
