Final report of the Access Data Short-Life Working Group

Scottish Child Payment

Background

SCP was introduced in February 2021 for low-income families with children aged under six. In November 2022, SCP was extended to low-income families with children aged under 16. SCP is intended to provide regular, additional financial support for families already in receipt of qualifying benefits to assist with the costs of caring for a child. There are no limits on the number of eligible children supported by SCP.

As part of the work developed by the short-life working group, the suitability of the data as a potential proxy measure of deprivation was assessed (objective 2).

Since November 2022 eligible families receive £25 per child, per week and is administered by Social Security Scotland through an application-based process, and is paid on a four-weekly basis. SCP does not count as earned income in the calculation of any other UK or Scottish Government benefits that the applicant, or any person in their household, currently receive.

A person may be eligible for SCP if all of the following apply:

• They live in Scotland.
• They or their partner are getting certain benefits or payments (These include: Child Tax Credit, Income Support, Pension Credit, Working Tax Credit, Universal Credit, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance ).
• They or their partner are the main person looking after a child who’s under 16 years old.

Data collected and published by Social Security Scotland

Data is collected by Social Security Scotland and held in their data management system. Social Security Scotland holds data about:

• The applicant (i.e. parent/guardian).
• Partner of the applicant.
• Children of the applicant.

As of June 2023, 316,190 children were estimated to be actively benefitting from SCP ⁽Scottish Child Payment: high level statistics to 30 June 2023).

Table 4 provides the breakdown by LA as published by Social Security Scotland and analysis published by the National Records of Scotland, including the estimated population of 0-15 year olds in each LA and the population of 0-15 year olds in each LA that live in SIMD20 areas. The table covers different points in time, and hence the analysis shown should be tre

ated as estimation, but still provides a useful comparison.

This table shows that for LAs with small proportions of SIMD20, including the island LAs, Highland, the North East and South Scotland, there is a far higher estimated proportion of children receiving SCP than children who live in SIMD areas. This suggests that SCP could reach many more households than are currently captured by SIMD. The final column of the table shows the difference between the estimated proportion of children benefitting from SCP, and the estimated proportion in SIMD20 areas, ordered from greatest to least.

Source: Social Security Scotland’s Scottish Child Payment: high level statistics to 30 June 2023 and NRS’s Mid-Year population estimates 2021.

Data covers different years and hence analysis should be treated as provisional estimations.

Advantages and limitations of SCP as a widening access measure

Advantages:

• It is anticipated that there will be less stigma associated with claiming SCP compared to the perceived stigma around claiming FSM (see Section 4).
• SCP is a key policy of SG and linking it to other issues intended to address disadvantage (e.g. widening access) may offer alignment across policy areas.
• SCP effectively identifies those in need of support.
• Would include those who are home schooled.

Limitations:

• SCP has only recently been introduced and therefore the data is still under development.
• SCP has only recently been introduced and therefore not all eligible young people will be currently registered.
• Data sharing may be challenging as the data is held by Social Security Scotland, not SG.
• No comparable measure across the UK.

Legal gateway and implementation

Regulations exist which outline the purposes for which information can be shared between Social Security Scotland and public bodies (The Social Security Information-sharing (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (legislation.gov.uk)). These regulations do not allow for data to be shared with UCAS or universities.

Legislative change would likely be required to create a legal gateway for using SCP data for operational purposes in university admissions.

As with FSM, any data being shared would require a legal basis under GDPR (The Data Protection Act 2018) – i.e. the lawful basis through which one processes data.

Conclusion and recommendations

• Initial analysis of the SCP data suggests it will be suitable for use as a widening access measure as the uptake of SCP is well spread across the country. Further analysis will be required as the data becomes more mature, however it is expected this measure would expand the evidence base for universities in making contextualised decisions about young people in Scotland.
• Further data from Social Security Scotland is published regularly, including recent breakdowns of the number of children actively benefitting by SIMD. Early analysis suggests that 41% are in the most deprived quintile, with 5% in the least deprived quintile (Scottish Child Payment: high level statistics to 30 September 2023). Further analysis can consider this data in the context of a wider basket of measures to better understand the possible impact on access to higher education.
• Further exploration of the legalities and practicalities is required if this data is to be recommended.