Social Security (Act) 2018: progress report 2020 to 2021

Section 4: Equality Assessment and Data

The Act specifies that the annual report should contain an assessment of how the Scottish social security system has affected the circumstances of people whose finances are affected by a person in the household having a protected characteristic listed in section 4 of the Equality Act 2010 (for example age, disability).

As noted in previous reports, this assessment is made in two ways:

• Where a benefit is directly focussed on supporting the situation arising because an applicant has a protected characteristic.
• Understanding the equality distribution of benefits to identify where it is more likely to be helping people with a protected characteristic. In some cases the protected characteristic may be a factor in why someone is eligible for a benefit, e.g. employment discrimination, gendered expectations of caring, but this is difficult to quantify.

We are able to make an assessment of the benefits that were paid during the financial year 2020/21, but information is likely to be more partial for some benefits, such as Scottish Child Payment, which opened for applications only in November 2020 and Child Winter Heating Assistance, which was paid for the first time in the Winter of 2020/21. Data are gathered in a number of ways. In some cases, data are a routine part of the application. Up to December 2019, data were also collected through a voluntary equalities monitoring questionnaire. Since December 2019, data on how individuals identify with respect to equalities are now collected within the application, although it is possible for an applicant to select that they prefer not to answer the question. For Carer's Allowance Supplement and Child Winter Heating Assistance, payment is automatic for recipients of the UK Carer's Allowance or the highest level of care award for Disability Living Allowance respectively, and so available equalities data is that published by the Department of Work and Pensions.

The Scottish Government are able to identify those instances, where having a protected characteristic will directly impact on financial circumstances (e.g. the cost of disability or pregnancy) and record where benefits address this. Other impacts are more indirect (e.g. discrimination affecting access to employment), and are thus more difficult to quantify or assess the role benefits play in counteracting them.

The Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment is made to households where there is someone who is, or has recently been, pregnant. Between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021 16,360 applications had been authorised for payment, with £6.9 million added to family budgets. Of the applications authorised for Pregnancy and Baby Payment, 35 percent were estimated to be for a first birth and 65 percent for a subsequent birth^[8].

Best Start Foods launched in Scotland in August 2019 to replace the UK Healthy Start voucher scheme. It provides pregnant women and families with children under the age of three, who are in receipt of certain benefits, with a minimum of £4.25 a week to purchase healthy foods using a payment card (from 16 August 2021, Best Start Foods payments were increased to a minimum of £4.50 per week). Between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, 46,430 applications had been authorised for Best Start Foods.

Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods share an integrated application process. Of all the Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods applications that were authorised for payment between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, 36,530 (47 per cent) were for applicants under 30.

With respect to Carer's Allowance Supplement, it is not possible from current data to say what the relationship is between the carer and the person who receives care. However, it is likely that a proportion of recipients will be providing care to a member of their household who must be a person in receipt of a specified disability benefit. In those circumstances, the additional support provided in 2020/21 – up to £690.30, through two standard payments of £230.10 and the additional Coronavirus payment of £230.10 paid with the June Supplement – was a contribution to the carer's income which may have had an impact on the household overall. These payments were increased to £231.40 for 2021-22.

Social Security Scotland has published fuller diversity analysis – up to November 2020^[9] which includes breakdowns by a greater number of equality characteristics. These statistics are based on information collected in equalities monitoring forms, which are completed after a client makes an application. Numbers of applications approved and denied are based on the most recent outcome for each individual client only. We set out selected highlights of these statistics for this and other benefits.

From June to November 2020, 90 per cent of Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods applicants identified as "white", 4 per cent "Asian" and 2 per cent "African". Clients who identified as "Asian" were most likely to have their application denied (35%), with clients identifying as "White" least likely to be denied (27%) out of these most represented groups. Overall 28% clients were denied and 72% were approved.

The applicants for Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods are highly skewed towards women (90 per cent), with 8 per cent identifying as men. The application approval rate was 73 per cent for women, 66 per cent for men and 72 per cent for clients who "prefer not to say". Fifteen per cent of applicants reported that they had a physical or mental health condition which was expected to last 12 months or more.

In terms of sexual orientation, 92 per cent of applicants for Best Start Grant reported their sexuality as "heterosexual" compared to 2 per cent for "Bisexual" and 5 per cent who "preferred not to say". Around 66 per cent of respondents said "None" on responding to questions about their religion, followed by Roman Catholic (13 per cent), Church of Scotland (6 per cent), Other Christian (5 per cent), Muslim (5 per cent) and Prefer not to say (4 per cent). Other options were rounded to 0 per cent.

Best Start Grant was evaluated^[10] in 2020, and the qualitative research with recipients concluded that they valued the timeliness of the payment of helping them to meet the extra costs of birth and pregnancy (this was also true of Early Years and School Payments). An evaluation for Best Start Foods will be commissioned to report in mid 2022.

As might be expected for a benefit targeted at families with young children, the vast majority of applicants in the June to November 2020 equalities analysis were under 45, with 15 per cent aged 16-24, 54 per cent ages 25-35 and 27 per cent aged 35-44.

From June to November 2020, 92 per cent of the applicants for the Scottish Child Payment identified as having a "White" background. A further 2 per cent were from Asian, and also 2 per cent from African backgrounds. As with Best Start Grant, the vast majority of applications came from women (93 per cent and 5 per cent from men).

Ninety-two per cent of applicants identified as "heterosexual" while 6 per cent selected "prefer not to say", 2 per cent "bisexual" and 1 per cent "gay & lesbian". Around 70 per cent of respondents said "None" on responding to questions about their religion, followed by Roman Catholic (12 per cent), Church of Scotland (6 per cent), Other Christian (3 per cent), Muslim (4 per cent) and Prefer not to say (4 per cent). Other options were rounded to 0 per cent. Again, as with Best Start Grant, most applicants were under the age of 45, with 18 per cent aged 16-24, 53 per cent aged 25-34 and 25 per cent aged 35-44.

With respect to carer benefits (Carer's Allowance Supplement and Young Carer Grant), it is not possible from current data to say what the relationship is between the carer and the person who receives care. However, it is likely that a proportion of recipients will be providing care to a member of their household who must be a person in receipt of a specified disability benefit. The client group are generally on lower incomes than those without caring responsibilities. As well as benefitting the carer themselves, carer benefits will have an indirect positive impact on disabled people, as the person the carer looks after will be disabled.

In those circumstances, the additional support provided by the Carer's Allowance Supplement in 2020-21 – up to £690.30, through two standard payments of £230.10 and the additional Coronavirus payment of £230.10 paid with the June Supplement – was a contribution to the carer's income which may have had an impact on the household overall. These payments were increased to £231.40 for 2021-22.

Women are disproportionately represented in the client group for Carer's Allowance Supplement, being 69 per cent of the client group for Carer's Allowance. In addition, 46 per cent of applicants for Carer's Allowance are aged 50 or over ^[11].

The Young Carer Grant was launched in October 2019. According to Young Carer Grant official statistics for the 2020-21 reporting year, 2,290 awards had been authorised, 36 per cent of applications were made by 16 year-olds, 39 per cent by 17 year olds and 22 per cent by 18 year olds^[12].

Equalities analysis covering applications received from June to November 2020 shows that, 92 per cent of the applicants identified as "White" and 4 per cent as "Asian". Seventy-four per cent of the applicants from those with White backgrounds were approved, compared to 70 per cent of those from Asian backgrounds. As with Carer's Allowance, the gender of applicants for Young Carer Grant was skewed towards women (57 per cent, compared to 41 per cent men). However, women were less likely to have their application approved (73 per cent compared to 76 per cent of men). Fifteen per cent of applicants for Young Carer Grant reported that they had a physical or mental health condition which was expected to last 12 months or more. Eighty-three per cent of Young Carer Grant applicants identified as "heterosexual", 9 per cent selected "prefer not to say", 5 per cent bisexual and 3 per cent "Gay and lesbian".

For Young Carer Grant, around 2 per cent of respondents identified as transgender. This tends to compare with about 1 per cent or less for other benefits, but given the relatively small caseload of Young Carer Grant, it is still a small number in absolute terms. However a further 2 per cent selected "prefer not to say". This was similar to Job Start Payment (2 per cent), but less than Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grant (3 per cent) and Funeral Support Payment (7 per cent).

Around 65 per cent of respondents said "None" on responding to questions about their religion, followed by Roman Catholic (13 per cent), Church of Scotland (10 per cent), Other Christian (3 per cent), Muslim (4 per cent) and Prefer not to say (5 per cent). Other options were rounded to 0 per cent. As expected, given the eligibility for Young Carer Grant (16, 17 and 18 year olds), 99 per cent of applicants were aged 16-24.

Evaluations of both Carer's Allowance Supplement^[13] and Young Carer Grant have been published which confirmed that most recipients thought that the money was timely and helped them in their caring role, as well as positively impacting on their wellbeing. While the payments were welcome, co-ordinated action in a variety of policy areas would be required to transform outcomes for carers.

Job Start Payment (JSP) launched in Summer 2020, and from launch until the end of November 2020 95 per cent of applicants identified as "white", and 33 per cent of their applications were approved (the same as the overall approval rate, which was also 33 per cent). The majority of applicants for JSP were male (54 per cent, 45 per cent women). The respective approval rates were 29 per cent and 36 per cent. The number of applicants who reported that they had a physical or mental health condition which was expected to last 12 months or more was 14 per cent. Eighty seven per cent of applicants identified their sexuality as "heterosexual" with 4 per cent "gay & lesbian", 5 per cent "bisexual" and 4 per cent "prefer not to say". Around 78 per cent of respondents (the highest for all benefits) said "None" on responding to questions about their religion, followed by Roman Catholic (10 per cent), Church of Scotland (4 per cent), Other Christian (2 per cent), Muslim (1 per cent) Other (1 per cent) and Prefer not to say (3 per cent). Other options were rounded to 0 per cent. With the benefit targeted to young entrants to the labour market, 97 per cent of applicants were aged 16 to 24.

From June to November 2020, applicants for Funeral Support Payment (FSP) identified as "White" in 91 per cent of cases, "Asian" in 1 per cent of cases, while 7 per cent preferred not to say. 74 per cent of Asian respondents had their application approved, compared to 86 per cent of White respondents. Of all Social Security Scotland benefits, FSP had the highest proportion of people who reported that they had a physical or mental health condition which was expected to last 12 months or more (34 per cent), and in addition 14 per cent selected "Prefer not to say" in answer to this question.

Women also make up the majority of applications for FSP (61 per cent) with 33 by men. The approval rate is 87 per cent for women and 82 per cent for men. Eighty-seven per cent of applicants for FSP identified as "heterosexual" while 11 per cent selected "prefer not to say".

There was a notable difference in responses on religious background for Funeral Support Payment, compared to other benefits. Around 46 per cent of respondents said "None" on responding to questions about their religion (compared to 66 per cent for all benefits), followed by Roman Catholic (18 per cent), Church of Scotland (18 per cent), Prefer not to Say (12 per cent), Other Christian (3 per cent) and Muslim (1 per cent). Other options were rounded to 0 per cent.

Funeral Support Payment saw a slightly older group applying than for other benefits, however around 32 per cent were still aged under 45. Forty-three per cent were aged 45-65 and 25 per cent aged 65 or over.