BENEFIT PAYMENTS INFORMATION FROM SOCIAL SECURITY SCOTLAND
Due to the bank holidays, some payments will be made earlier than usual in December and January.
Find out more at: http://bit.ly/festivepaymentdates23
Having to pay for a funeral can cause extra strain for people at what can be a difficult time.
That’s why, during National Grief Awareness week, we want to highlight the services and benefits available from Social Security Scotland, which may help to ease financial worry and reduce paperwork for people.
Through our Bereavement Service specially trained experienced and compassionate expert client advisers provide help to people who need to update us about benefit payments after a death.
With just one phone call, people can report the death of a family member, friend or loved one directly to one of our advisers. At that point, our adviser will take the necessary information for all payments that need to be cancelled.
Our Bereavement Service is also connected to the UK-wide ‘Tell Us Once’ scheme, which lets most government departments and local authorities know when someone dies. The system allows us to automatically follow up with any actions without the need for people to send information separately. This helps take away some of the worry people have about more administrative tasks at this upsetting time.
Our client advisers are helping make a difference to our clients at a time when they may be feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed. A client adviser from our Bereavement Service, said: “Clients are grateful for being made aware of services like Tell Us Once which they can use to report the death once and all relevant departments will be notified.
“We make the caller aware of further assistance that may be available to them such as Funeral Support Payment or Bereavement care.
“Sometimes the caller may just want to talk about their experience of losing a loved one and we will lend a listening ear.”
Our client advisers can also signpost and help eligible people to apply for Funeral Support Payment, which helps pay towards funeral costs for people on low incomes getting certain benefits.
It can be paid either to parents and families or the funeral director who is helping to plan the funeral. In Scotland, local authorities cover the burial or cremation costs for a baby, child or young person aged 17 or under.
Since launching Funeral Support Payment in September 2019, we have approved over 32,600 applications, providing more than £37.8 million of support for people and families.
People can apply for Funeral Support Payment online, via a paper application form or by calling us free on 0800 182 2222 and asking to speak to the specially trained bereavement team.
To find out more information, people can visit mygov.scot/funeralsupportpayment
The families of more than 323,000 under-16s were benefitting from Scottish Child Payment at the end of September, official statistics show.
Figures published today show the payment of £25 per week was reaching 323,315 children – an increase of more than 7,000 compared to 30 June 2023.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission had forecast that the average number of children receiving support in 2023/24 would be 309,000.
Today’s statistics release also shows that the combined overall amount paid out across Social Security Scotland’s five family payments, since they launched, is more than £596 million.
That’s made up of £458.5 million for Scottish Child Payment and £138.1 million for the rest of the five family payments – Best Start Foods and three Best Start Grants (Pregnancy and Baby Payment, Early Learning Payment and School Age Payment) combined.
The average time taken to process applications has also improved across the five family payments.
For Scottish Child Payment, the average wait was six working days in September, down from 13 working days in June.
For Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, the average wait was four working days, down from 12 over the same period.
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “As the First Minister has made clear, tackling child poverty is a key mission for the Scottish Government and these figures show we are reaching more of the children and young people who need our help. We’re doing it more quickly too.
“It is estimated that Scottish Child Payment will lift around 50,000 children out of poverty in the current financial year.
“Our work with this uniquely Scottish benefit is in stark contrast with the UK Government’s approach of continued austerity, further outlined in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement last week.
“Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Foods and our Best Start Grants provide a robust safety net and are among many actions we are taking in government to lift people out of poverty.
“However, I would continue to encourage people to spread the word as we want all eligible people to get the help they are entitled to.”
The Scottish Government has twice increased Scottish Child Payment; first from £10 to £20 per week per child then £25 when it extended to include all eligible children under 16 in November last year.
The statistics are available in full here:
The proposals in the UK Government’s Back to Work Plan contain a confusing mixture of devolved and reserved responsibilities, which leave us slightly mystified as to exactly how this is all going to work in practice (writes Fraser of Allander Institute’s MAIRI SPOWAGE):
In his speech, the Chancellor said: “… last week I announced our Back to Work Plan. We will reform the Fit Note process so that treatment rather than time off work becomes the default.
“We will reform the Work Capability Assessment to reflect greater flexibility and availability of home working after the pandemic. And we will spend £1.3 billion over the next five years to help nearly 700,000 people with health conditions find jobs.
“Over 180,000 more people will be helped through the Universal Support Programme and nearly 500,000 more people will be offered treatment for mental health conditions and employment support.
“Over the forecast period, the OBR judge these measures will more than halve the net flow of people who are signed off work with no work search requirements. At the same time, we will provide a further £1.3 billion of funding to offer extra help to the 300,000 people who have been unemployed for over a year without having sickness or a disability.
“But we will ask for something in return. If after 18 months of intensive support jobseekers have not found a job, we will roll out a programme requiring them to take part in a mandatory work placement to increase their skills and improve their employability. And if they choose not to engage with the work search process for six months, we will close their case and stop their benefits.”
These changes have the potential to impact recipients of Universal Credit. The complication is that UC is reserved, while many elements of employment support – the “extra help” that the Chancellor talks about – is, on the whole, devolved.
Because of this, many of the support mechanisms to help people avoid sanctions in England (& Wales in most cases) generated Barnett consequentials, including:
So, in summary, it looks like the sanctions could be applied in a reserved benefit, following support that may or may not be provided by the Scottish devolved employability system as the Scottish Government could choose to spend the money on something else.
We wait for more details from both the UK & Scottish Governments about how this is going to work in practice.
The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride will unveil their Back to Work Plan – a package of employment focused support that will help people stay healthy, get off benefits and move into work – as part of the Autumn Statement.
Building on the ambitious £7 billion employment package from Spring Budget the Chancellor is using his Autumn Statement to outline a new Back to Work Plan, which will expand the employment support and treatment available and reform the ways that people with disabilities or health conditions interact with the state.
Getting more people into work and ensuring work pays remains a key priority for the government. It is important for growing the UK economy, managing inflation, controlling spending, and improving living standards. Getting more people into good jobs is also good for those individuals and the best route out of poverty.
The government is boosting four key programmes – NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support, Restart and Universal Support – to benefit up to 1.1 million people over the next five years and help those with mental or physical health conditions stay in or find work.
The new WorkWell service as announced at Spring Budget and delivered by the Departments for Work and Pensions and Health and Social Care is also being formally launched today and will support almost 60,000 long-term sick or disabled people to start, stay and succeed in work once rolled out in approximately 15 areas across England.
The prospectus that will be launched in the coming weeks will provide information for all Integrated Care Systems across England to develop their localised work and health strategy.
Ministers are also planning to trial reforms to the fit note process to make it easier and quicker for people to get specialised work and health support, with improved triaging and signposting. Since the pandemic the number of people inactive in the UK due to long-term sickness or disability has risen by almost half a million to a record high of 2.6 million, with mental health, musculoskeletal conditions and heart disease being some of the main causes.
Stricter benefit sanctions will also be enforced by the Department for Work and Pensions for people who are able to work but refuse to engage with their Jobcentre or take on work offered to them. Benefit claimants who continue to refuse to engage with the Jobcentre will face having their claim closed. The latest published data shows that there were 300,000 people who had been unemployed for over a year in the three months to July.
The announcement today forms part of wider plans to grow the economy expected in the Autumn Statement on Wednesday 22 November. The Chancellor is set to reveal a raft of changes to get the UK economy growing including getting people back into work.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, said: “We’re serious about growing our economy and that means we must address the rise in people who aren’t looking for work – especially because we know so many of them want to and with almost a million vacancies in the jobs market the opportunities are there.
“These changes mean there’s help and support for everyone – but for those who refuse it, there are consequences too. Anyone choosing to coast on the hard work of taxpayers will lose their benefits.”
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride, said: “We are rolling out the next generation of welfare reforms to help more people start, stay and succeed in work. We know the positive impact work can have, not just on our finances, but our health and wellbeing too.
“So we are expanding the voluntary support for people with health conditions and disabilities, including our flagship Universal Support programme.
“But our message is clear: if you are fit, if you refuse to work, if you are taking taxpayers for a ride – we will take your benefits away.”
The plans announced today set out how the government will tackle long-term unemployment by supporting Universal Credit claimants to find work while strengthening work search requirements for job seekers through all stages of their Universal Credit claim.
As a result of these reforms, no claimant should reach 18 months of unemployment in receipt of their full benefits if they have not taken every reasonable step to comply with Jobcentre support.
The plans to tackle long-term unemployment include:
Plans set out also include expanding key health and employment programmes, to benefit over half a million people over the next five years and help those with mental health conditions stay in or find work:
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Victoria Atkins, said: “We know that tailored work and health support initiatives can help break down the kinds of barriers that can make finding and staying in a job more difficult for those with mental health conditions.
“Backing them with further investment means they’re more widely available, enables personalised help and will get thousands back to work by overcoming any issues that may be preventing them from fulfilling their career potential.”
Kate Shoesmith, Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Deputy Chief Executive, said: “Today’s announcements will help the Restart scheme keep making a real difference to people’s work and life chances.
“It contributes to efforts to overcome our labour and skills shortages and to further growing our economy. Bringing public and private employment services together is vital to get people into work and not look back.
“Our own award-winning Restart scheme, which sees recruiters work with employability services provider Maximus, has helped place 1700 long-term unemployed people into work since 2021.”
Social Security Scotland has published its Annual Report and Accounts, which show that it made £641 million in direct payments to people across Scotland from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.
The payments were made across 13 Scottish benefits, seven of which are completely new forms of support not available anywhere else in the UK.
This includes the Scottish Child Payment which has been extended to eligible children under the age of 16. More than 300,000 young people are now receiving this payment.
The payments also include the new Winter Heating Payment, which has helped almost 400,000 people on low incomes with their heating costs.
The results of an annual survey of clients have also been published, showing that 93% of people who had been in contact with Social Security Scotland felt they had been treated with kindness.
Among those who responded to the survey, 97% said they had received their benefit payments when Social Security Scotland said they would and 90% said their experience with staff was ‘very good’ or ‘good’. A further 90% said staff listened to them and 89% felt they were treated with respect.
In total, the combination of direct payments made by Social Security Scotland and those paid through Agency Agreements with the Department for Work and Pensions saw the Scottish Government invest £4.04 billion in benefits across Scotland.
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said: “We are supporting families across the country at a time where they are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and higher energy bills. We now deliver 13 benefits, seven of which are only available in Scotland and are delivering these payments while treating people with dignity, fairness and respect.
“Our decision to expand the Scottish Child Payment to all eligible young people under the age of 16 and increase the payment to £25 per week means we are supporting more than 300,000 children and making a significant contribution to tackling child poverty.
“As we prepare to launch Carer Support Payment, our 14th benefit, we are committed to making sure that people get the money they are entitled to and that people who are eligible know how to apply for our payments.”
Chief Executive of Social Security Scotland, David Wallace, said: “This last year has been the busiest in our five-year history. We have significantly expanded our service, including the national rollout of Adult Disability Payment, the extension of the Scottish Child Payment and paid Winter Heating Payment for the first time.
“We are continuing to develop and improve our service. Despite some challenges with processing times, which we are actively working to improve, we still maintained high client satisfaction rates. In our annual Client Survey, 93% of people who participated told us they were treated with kindness.”
An annual payment to help disabled children and young people heat their homes is on its way to around 29,000 people.
The Child Winter Heating Payment of £235.70 is paid automatically to families of children and young people up to the age of 19 who already get certain benefits.
These include the highest rate of the care component of Child Disability Payment or Disability Living Allowance for Children. People getting the enhanced rate of the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment, or the enhanced rate of the daily living component of Adult Disability Payment, also qualify.
People who got these benefits during the week of 18 – 24 September will get a Child Winter Heating Payment. The vast majority of people do not need to apply for this benefit as the payment is made automatically by Social Security Scotland.
The payment is per child or young person, not per household. So if more than one child or young person in a household is entitled, they will each get a payment.
Families will get a letter to confirm they are entitled to the payment and money will be paid into the same account as their qualifying benefits. If someone thinks they are eligible but have not received a letter they should contact Social Security Scotland.
For more information about Child Winter Heating Payment people can visit: mygov.scot/childwinterheatingpayment or call us for free on 0800 182 2222.
Gordon Macdonald, SNP MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, has urged residents across the city to take part in the Scottish Government’s consultation on the introduction of the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.
From winter 2024, the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, which will be an annual payment, will replace the UK government’s Winter Fuel Payment in Scotland.
The Scottish Government are consulting people across Edinburgh to understand who should be eligible for this payment, when and how it should be delivered, and what measures can be put in place to support those living off the gas grid. The consultation closes on January 15th 2024.
Gordon Macdonald MSP is urging constituents across Edinburgh Pentlands to complete the consultation to ensure the payment is as effective as possible in helping pensioners with their winter heating costs.
Commenting, Gordon said: “The new Pension Age Winter Heating Payment delivered by the SNP Government will help over a million pensioners in Scotland with their heating costs, including thousands across Edinburgh.
“The SNP Government is committed to helping the most vulnerable through the difficult winter period – but it is vital people make their views known of how this payment can best be delivered.
“Since setting up a devolved social security system with compassion, fairness, and respect at its core – 13 benefits, of which 7 are unique to Scotland, have been established.
“Social Security Scotland is set to deliver £5.3 billion in devolved benefits in 2023-24 alone, supporting over 1.2 million peopleas the SNP continues to deliver every day for the people of Scotland.”
Consultation can be completed here: Pension Age Winter Heating Payment – Scottish Government consultations – Citizen Space
Young people are being urged to find out if they are eligible for Job Start Payment as part of a new campaign. The Scottish Government has introduced changes to Job Start Payment, simplifying the process for young people to apply.
Changes to the qualifying criteria mean that income received from completing trial shifts will now not rule out applicants from getting Job Start Payment.
Further changes made by Social Security Scotland, who administer the payment, include extending the deadline to apply to six months after the young person’s job offer rather than the previous three months, and supplying simplified supporting information for proof of job. These changes are designed to make the application process clearer and simpler.
The one-off payment helps young people and care leavers with the costs of starting a new job. Eligible people receive a one-off payment of £294.70 or £471.50 if they are a main carer of any children.
The nationwide digital marketing campaign, which launched on 23 October, aims to raise awareness of the financial support available to young people and care leavers when offered a job after a period of unemployment.
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Since launching in August 2020, Job Start Payment has made a real difference to young people across Scotland by supporting them to take up employment opportunities.
“The pressures of starting a new job can be overwhelming and we don’t want the extra costs to be what stops young people.
“It is now simpler for eligible clients to apply for Job Start Payment due to the recent guidance changes. I encourage young people and carers who have recently started work, or employers taking on young people in a new job, to find out more and check if they are eligible.
“The ongoing cost of living crisis means that people are facing difficult financial decisions day in and day out.
“We are committed to making sure that people are getting all of the money that they are entitled to and that the people who are eligible know how to apply.”
Social Security Scotland are reminding clients who receive a Universal Credit migration notice to apply before the deadline to ensure their benefit payments are not interrupted.
The migration from Tax Credits to Universal Credit will affect the processes for some Social Security Scotland benefits, including Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Foods, Best Start Grants and Funeral Support Payment.
The Department for Work and Pensions will send a letter to people who receive Tax Credits, urging them to make a claim for Universal Credit. The letter will include the deadline for claims – people are strongly advised not to miss the deadline as Tax Credit support will end after this date. Clients affected by this migration can find more information from the DWP website.
Social Security Scotland are asking stakeholders to help their clients apply before the deadline to make sure they don’t lose financial support. This will allow SSS to continue making payments without the need for further action.
This new change will affect eight Scottish Government schemes:
