As we begin another year, we know too many people in the UK are still struggling with the cost of living.
To help tackle this, the Scottish Government has made the decision to continue spending more on social security in stark contrast to the UK Government’s continuing welfare cuts and inhumane austerity policy.
In the recently announced 2024-25 budget, our record-breaking investment includes committing £6.3 billion for benefits expenditure. We are investing £1.1bn more than the funding we are forecast to receive from the UK Government through the Social Security Block Grant Adjustments. £614 million will be invested in new benefits and payments only available in Scotland, providing support to over 1.2 m people.
We continue to invest in innovative approaches to poverty, including through our new Cash-First Programme to tackle food insecurity, and Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund, which will support low-income households and their communities.
Five years on from establishing our own radically different social security system, we now deliver 14 benefits and have taken steps to build a fairer and more equal Scotland – despite the limited powers and budgets of devolution.
We have established new benefits unique to Scotland, such as the Scottish Child Payment. It is estimated this will lift around 50,000 children out of poverty in 2023-24, with almost 370,000 children eligible for this payment. We have twice increased Scottish Child Payment and extended it to include all eligible children under 16 in November last year. When we first launched this game-changing payment in 2021 it was £10 per week. It is now £25 per week, a rise of 150% in less than 8 months.
We will increase it again to £26.70 a week from April 2024, worth over £1,300 per child per year. Unlike the UK Government, we do not limit the number of children who can receive benefits.
Tackling child poverty is a key mission for the Scottish Government and the Scottish Child Payment is one of five family payments we offer which have paid out more than £596m in vital support for families.
That’s made up of £458.5m for Scottish Child Payment and £138.1m 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.
In Scotland, around one in three people getting Universal Credit are in work – this is a qualifying benefit for several other payments.
People with jobs can also qualify for Adult Disability Payment, with qualification not based on employment or income, and one-off payments including Winter Heating Payment and Funeral Support Payment.
Since 2022-23, we have continued to allocate around £3bn a year to policies that tackle poverty and protect people during the ongoing cost of living crisis. Prioritising investment in social security, way above what we receive from the UK Government, recognises this is support any one of us could need at any time in our lives and is an essential investment in Scotland’s people.
Shirley-Anne Somerville is Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
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