We can turn compassion and justice into action to support children in low-income households.
120 charities and community organisations are calling on the Scottish Government @scotgov to continue to do the right thing by doubling Scottish Child Payment bridging payments.
See the letter to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (below):
Due to public holidays, some upcoming payments – Scottish Child Payment, Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment – will go into accounts early:
Best Start, Bright Future – a Poverty Alliance Webinar
Monday 6 June 2022: 10am – 1pm
Scotland is a country where compassion is strong, but where child poverty is an ongoing injustice that we have to end together.
Best Start, Bright Future, the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, was published at the end of March. It’s designed to help create the change we need to drive down child poverty and reach Scotland’s interim child poverty targets in 2024.
There are a lot of commitments in the plan, and we are hosting a special morning webinar to explore how we can make sure they are implemented, and how they can best deliver practical change in our communities.
The plan includes pledges to: increase the level of the Scottish Child Payment; create a new employability offer to help parents get into work, and; mitigation of the benefit cap.
There is lot more besides, and Best Start, Bright Futures will touch on all areas of anti-poverty activity in Scotland. It is crucial for groups and organisations across the country to understand what it all means for their work.
Please join us for a morning of discussion on how we can all work together to ensure that the ambition contained in the plan is delivered.
Agenda
10:00 Welcome Peter Kelly, Director, the Poverty Alliance
10:05 Best Start, Bright Futures: What you need to know!
Julie Humphreys, Deputy Director, Tackling Child Poverty & Financial Wellbeing, Scottish Government
10:20 From Plan to Practice: Perspectives on Best Start, Bright Futures
Professor Morag Treanor, Deputy Chair, Poverty and Inequality Commission
John Dickie, Director, Child Poverty Action Group Scotland
Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland
10:50 Panel Discussion
11:15 Comfort Break
11.30 Workshops
1. Making Employability Work for Priority Group Families
2. Social security: Priorities for tackling poverty
3. Childcare and Child Poverty – Meeting the Challenges
12.30: Feedback from groups and concluding remarks
13:00 Close
Plans have been announced to automatically pay the Best Start Grant Early Learning and School Age Payments to parents and carers who already receive Scottish Child Payment when their children become eligible.
The change will be introduced later this year when Scottish Child Payment is extended to under-16s and increased to £25 per child, per week.
This builds on extensive work already done to make applying for the Scottish Government’s five family payments as straightforward as possible.
It includes the ability to apply for all children in a household on a single form. The form can be completed online, by phone or on paper. Parents and carers contributed to the design of the form to make sure the language was clear and easy to navigate.
As set out in the recent Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’, the introduction of automatic awards will remove the need for eligible families receiving Scottish Child Payment to reapply when their child becomes eligible for the Early Learning and School Age Payments.
This will mean less paperwork for tens of thousands of families and ensure that families automatically receive the support to which they’re entitled.
On a visit to FARE Scotland in Glasgow, Minister for Social Security, Ben Macpherson said: “Tackling child poverty is a key mission for the Scottish Government and automating payments, where we already have all of the information we need to do so, will mean parents and carers automatically getting the financial support they are eligible for paid directly to them.
“Since launching Best Start Grant in December 2018, we’ve made more than 177,000 payments, totalling £55.3 million in support, families who need it most. Automating payments, where we can, will enable us to help even more families.
“We are committed to making sure that receiving our five family payments is as straightforward as possible. Automatic awards, increasing Scottish Child Payment to £20, and again to £25 by the end of the year, and uprating eight Scottish benefits by 6% are some of the ways we are using our limited social security powers and resources to help families in need.”
Jimmy Wilson, Chief Executive of FARE Scotland, said: “There are families who aren’t aware of all the benefits to which they’re entitled so anything that can be done to make the process simpler is to be welcomed.
“It’s more important than ever that people understand the help which is there for them.
“The advantages in having automatic awards could be significant. We hope this move has a positive impact on take up rates which could help to reduce and prevent child poverty and support family wellbeing.”
The flagship family payment – Scottish Child Payment – has now doubled to £20 per week per child. 104,000 children are already benefiting from this increase.
The payment, which is unique to Scotland, was designed to tackle child poverty head on. It is one of five family benefits which provides financial support to low income families with children aged under 6.
The benefit will be extended at the end of the year to all eligible children under the age of 16 – and at that point also increase further from £20 to £25.
Once extended, it is expected over 400,000 children could be eligible. The newly doubled Scottish Child Payment, together with the three Best Start Grant payments and Best Start Foods, will provide families with more than £10,000 by the time their first child turns 6 and £9,700 for subsequent children.
This compares to less than £1,800 for an eligible family’s first child in England and Wales, and less than £1,300 for subsequent children.
Visiting Glasgow based family charity Govan Help, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “We are using our social security powers to take immediate steps to put cash in the pockets of families by doubling the Scottish Child Payment to £20 per week per child – support not replicated anywhere else in the UK.
“This is a key part of our national mission to tackle child poverty. We will further increase this payment to £25 by the end of 2022 – five times the amount campaigners originally asked. This will gives families additional financial support of £1,300 for each eligible child every year. We will back this with investment of around £671 million over the next two years – just part of our package of support for families.
“Our Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan will also build on our investment in employment support for parents, through new skills and training opportunities and key worker support to help reduce household costs and drive longer term change.
“We are determined to give children the best start and a bright future by putting more money into the pockets of those who need it most. Increasing the Scottish Child Payment will make a real difference to families and help to build a more equal and fairer Scotland for everyone.”
Viv Sawers, Chief Officer at Govan Help, said: “This is a fantastic measure from Scottish Government in tackling Child Poverty in Scotland. The roll out and the uplift in Scottish Child Payment will have an incredible impact on the families across Scotland who need it most and we are delighted to see money going directly to families who we know are struggling to meet their basic cost of living.
“Govan has higher than average rates of Child Poverty so this will have a hugely positive impact on the quality of life for families in this local community. We see families struggling daily, they have told us what a difference this has made already with the cost of living increases, we look forward to supporting more families to access this as it rolls out to children up to age 16 later this year.
“We know parenting is a really hard job, without financial pressures, this funding will go a long way to removing stresses that can impact on healthy family functioning and wellbeing.”
EIGHT of the benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland will now increase by 6%. The increase in payments for low income households and carers comes as the cost of living continues to rise.
Benefits and assistance including Job Start Payment, Young Carers Grant, Funeral Support Payment and Carer’s Allowance Supplement were due to be increased by 3.1% for 2022/23. Subject to parliamentary approval, the increases will now be almost doubled to a 6% uprate.
In addition, the three Best Start Grant payments, which we had not previously planned to uprate, will also now be uprated by 6%, and Child Winter Heating Assistance, which was previously set to rise by 5%, will now also rise by 6%.
From tomorrow (1st April), there will be a 100% increase in Scottish Child Payment, which will double from £10 per week to £20. Best Start Foods was already increased from £4.25 to £4.50 a week in August (5.88%).
Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment will still increase by 3.1% on April 11 in line with the equivalent benefits (Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment) which are still administered by the Department for Work and Pensions under agency agreement.
This is to avoid creating a two-tier system where individuals paid by Social Security Scotland are paid more than clients whose cases have not yet transferred to the Scottish system.
Payment rates for 2022-2023 are:
| Benefit | Rates 2021-2022 | Rates 2022-2023 | New rates 2022-2023 (6% uprate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Start Grant | |||
| Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment (1st Child Payment) | £606.00 | £606.00 | £642.35 |
| Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment (Subsequent Child Payment & Extra Payment for Twins/Triplets) | £303.00 | £303.00 | £321.20 |
| Best Start Grant Early Learning Payment | £252.50 | £252.50 | £267.65 |
| Best Start Grant School Age Payment | £252.50 | £252.50 | £267.65 |
| Child Winter Heating Assistance | |||
| Child Winter Heating Assistance (annually) | £202.00 | £212.10 | £214.10 |
| Funeral Support Payment | |||
| standard rate for other expenses element | £1,010.00 | £1041.30 | £1,070.60 |
| other expenses element where there is a funeral plan | £123.25 | £127.05 | £130.65 |
| removal of implanted medical devices | £20.55 | £21.20 | £21.55 |
| Job Start Payment | |||
| Job Start Payment (one-off) standard rate | £251.25 | £260.35 | £267.65 |
| higher rate | £404.00 | £416.50 | £428.25 |
| Young Carer Grant | |||
| Young Carer Grant (annually) | £308.15 | £317.70 | £326.65 |
| Carer’s Allowance Supplement | £8.90 | £9.15 | £9.45 |
| Child Disability Payment | Rates 2021-2022 | Rates 2022-2023* |
|---|---|---|
| Care Component Highest Rate | £89.60 | £92.40 |
| Care Component Middle Rate | £60.00 | £61.85 |
| Care Component Lowest Rate | £23.70 | £24.45 |
| Mobility Component Higher Rate | £62.55 | £64.50 |
| Mobility Component Lower Rate | £23.70 | £24.45 |
| Adult Disability Payment | Rates 2021-2022 | Rates 2022-2023* |
|---|---|---|
| Daily Living Component Standard Rate | £60.00 | £61.85 |
| Daily Living Component Enhanced Rate | £89.60 | £92.40 |
| Mobility Component Standard Rate | £23.70 | £24.45 |
| Mobility Component Enhanced Rate | £62.55 | £64.50 |
* 3.1% increase in line with the equivalent benefits (Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment) which are still administered by DWP under agency agreement.
Pentlands SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald has welcomed the package of measures announced yesterday by the Scottish Government to provide immediate support and break the cycle of child poverty for people across Edinburgh.
Shona Robison, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, announced an increase of a further £5 to the ‘game-changing’ Scottish Child Payment – bringing the total payment to £25 per week per child at the end of the year, following the increase to £20 next week.
This move will see the SNP Government’s package of five family benefits for low income families, including the increased Scottish Child Payment, now totalling over £10,000 to low income families by the time a first child turns 6, and £9,700 for subsequent children.
It directly benefits 7,995 of children across Edinburgh already in receipt of the payment.
In contrast, families in England and Wales receive less than £1,800 for the first child and under £1,300 for subsequent children.
The SNP Cabinet Secretary also announced:
· an increase in employment services with the aim of supporting up to 12,000 parents into fair and sustainable work, backed by investment of up to £81 million in 2022-23
· investment of up to £15 million in a new fund to tackle the financial barriers parents face when they enter the labour market
· immediate steps to mitigate the Tories’ Benefit Cap, which is impacting many families already struggling to make ends meet, backed by up to £10m
It is estimated that, through these and current Scottish Government actions, 60,000 fewer children will be living in relative poverty in 2023/24 compared with 2017.
Gordon MacDonald said: “This package of measures to tackle child poverty is hugely welcome and the impact it will have on households across Edinburgh cannot be underestimated – increasing the Scottish Child Payment even further, to £25 per week per child, will make such a difference to families struggling to cope with the Tory cost of living crisis right now.
“This stands in stark contrast to the Tory Chancellor’s spring statement which utterly failed to provide any meaningful lifeline support for people across Edinburgh who are facing soaring energy bills and a cost of living crisis now – and that was a political choice.
“I am glad that families across Edinburgh have an SNP Scottish Government taking serious, life-changing action to protect them where it can within limited powers and a fixed budget. The significant parental employment package also announced will help people across Edinburgh into fair and sustainable work.
“Other political parties must now recognise the reality that whilst the SNP is doing what it can to put money in people’s pockets in Scotland and tackle poverty, Westminster is consistently undermining Scotland’s efforts through their damaging policy agenda.
“These actions from the Scottish Government make it crystal clear that Edinburgh and the people that live here, would be better off with independence and all the levers to tackle poverty and hardship.”
Eligible parents are being urged to apply for Scottish Child Payment on the first anniversary of its roll out.
The payment of £10 per week, unique to Scotland, began in February 2021 as a direct measure to tackle poverty. It provides regular, additional financial support to parents and carers to help with the costs of caring for a child.
Since launch, the families of around 106,000 children have benefited from £520 a year and the payment will double to £20 per week from April.
By the end of this year – subject to data being made available by the DWP – the payment will extend to include all eligible children under the age of 16.
In 2019-20 the Scottish Government invested nearly £2 billion in support for low income households, including over £672 million targeted specifically at children.
Shona Robison, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government said: “The Scottish Government is determined to deliver on our ambition to eradicate child poverty in Scotland. So this year we will be even bolder with the ambitious and transformational measures we will take.
“From April, our Scottish Child Payment will double to £20 a week – four times the amount anti-poverty campaigners originally asked for. Together with our Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods payments, this will provide a package of financial support worth £8,400 by the time an eligible family’s first child turns 6.
“The extension to 16 year olds will continue this progress with the number of eligible children increasing to 430,000. In 2023-24 we estimate the Scottish Child Payment could lift 40,000 children out of poverty.
“This is part of the national mission we have set ourselves and society to tackle child poverty and our focus must be relentless and constant.
“Because many people learn about Scottish Child Payment through word of mouth, if you think a friend or family member might qualify, please encourage them to find out more and to help to ensure that everyone eligible gets the support they are entitled too.
“This way, we can all play a part in ensuring the continued success of Scottish Child Payment, advancing our fight to eradicate child poverty and building an equal and fairer country.”
The Scottish Government committed to introducing the Scottish Child Payment in June 2019 as part of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.
John Dickie, the Director of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: “The Scottish Child Payment is already providing vital financial support to families, helping parents give the best possible start in life to their children.
“Doubling its value from April comes at a critical time, helping families stay afloat as food and energy prices soar. The roll out to eligible children over five is now eagerly anticipated and really can’t come soon enough.”
The introduction of Adult Disability Payment and extension of Scottish Child Payment to children under 16 will see a major increase in the number of people eligible to receive Sottish benefits in 2022.
The Scottish Child Payment will increase to £20 from April, giving increased support to 111,000 children under the age of six. Its extension to children under 16 by the end of 2022, subject to the DWP making data available, will see the number of eligible children more than double to 400,000.
Adult Disability Payment, the twelfth benefit and most complex to be introduced so far, will replace the UK Government’s Personal Independence Payment. It will be phased in from March, with nationwide rollout at the end of August.
To support this, Social Security Scotland is in the process of recruiting up to 2,000 people by autumn 2022 with the first new recruits set to start early in the New Year – the biggest expansion since its formation in 2018, creating jobs and a boost to local economies.
Minister for Social Security Ben Macpherson said: “2022 will be our biggest year yet in building a new social security system for Scotland with the powers we have. The major milestones of introducing Adult Disability Payment and extending Scottish Child Payment will be transformative for many people with a disability or health condition and for families on low incomes.
“By the end of 2022 we aim to have extended the Scottish Child Payment to all those under the age of 16 – subject to the DWP making data available – increasing eligibility to around 400,000 children.
“From April the doubling of our Scottish Child Payment will significantly help us to reduce child poverty and build a fairer society.
“The £20 payment per child per week will be four times what was originally asked for by anti-poverty campaigners and we hope to lift 40,000 Scottish children out of poverty in 2023/24.
“Applying for Adult Disability Payment from Social Security Scotland will be different to applying to the DWP, as we will deliver a much improved experience.
“There will be no private sector involvement, we have removed DWP-style assessments and any consultations that are necessary will be person centred and won’t include functional examinations.
“We’ll start from a position of trust. Also, we are offering a range of ways to make an application, including online, by post, over the phone or face-to-face; and, in contrast to the current DWP system, we’re removing the burden from individuals to provide supporting information – instead the onus will be on Social Security Scotland to collect the information we require.
“We’ll also fast-track clients who are facing a terminal illness and we will follow the judgement of clinicians instead of being tied to fixed periods of life expectancy.
“As well as the positive impact of paying benefits, Social Security Scotland is also growing as an employer. This rapid development is not only making a difference in our communities but is also creating long-term secure employment across the country, and a £280 million contribution to our wider economy – something we can all welcome.
“Scotland’s social security system is built on the values of dignity, fairness and respect, and these are the principles which will always guide us as we develop this important public service.”
Citizens Advice Scotland Chief Executive Derek Mitchell said: “Citizens Advice Scotland supported the introduction and then doubling of the Scottish Child Payment because we know the difference it can make to families across the country.
“We’d encourage everyone eligible for the payment to apply and claim, that’s how our welfare state works – we all pay in and get the support we are entitled to when we need it.
“With the cost of living starting to really bite people can get help and advice from the Citizens Advice network to see what support they are entitled to. We’ve been helping people for over 80 years and unlocked £147 million for people last year.”
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.”
