The Scottish Government is to use new welfare powers for the first time to increase the flexibility of Universal Credit payments.
The benefit remains reserved but Scottish ministers have pledged to make payments more frequent and adaptable in the first use of the social security powers devolved under the Scotland Act 2016.
New claimants who live in council areas where a digital claiming system has been set up by the UK Government will have the option to be paid fortnightly instead of monthly.
Tenants in both social housing and the private rented sector will be able to have the housing element of Universal Credit paid directly to landlords.
A consultation is to be launched later this month on the regulations necessary to bring about the changes.
Social security minister Jeane Freeman said: "As part of the social security consultation exercise last summer, we heard direct from people that paying the housing element of Universal Credit direct to landlords and receiving more frequent payments would be two important improvements to the DWP approach.
"I am delighted, therefore, that I am able to address these concerns and go further, by extending the direct payment option to tenants with private landlords and deliver these flexibilities for people in Scotland.
"Universal Credit remains reserved to the UK Government but work with DWP to deliver the powers over the flexibilities is progressing and our priority is to ensure that, when these are devolved to us, we are ready and able to implement them in a way that best-meets the needs of the people of Scotland."
John Blackwood, chief executive of the Scottish Association of Landlords, said: "We welcome the extension of choice of direct payments to landlords for tenants in the private sector of the housing element of Universal Credit.
"This should help protect tenancies and minimise rent arrears which will benefit both the tenant and the landlord."
Scottish Labour social security spokesman Mark Griffin said: "There is a massive opportunity here for us to shape a fairer Scotland and create a social security system based on dignity and respect.
"For a start, Labour wants to see a statutory duty that puts an obligation on the new social security agency to make sure everyone gets what they are entitled to.
"More than 100,000 Scots miss out on tax credits they are entitled to, making sure everyone gets what they deserve could make a huge difference to the families across Scotland."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel