Social Security assistance - effects of inflation: report 2020-2021

Foreword

This report lays out the impact of inflation on all Part 2 Chapter 2 assistance currently being delivered, as required under section 77 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 ('the Act'), and what we intend to do for the next financial year. The report has also been extended to include all forms of assistance that the Scottish Ministers have a responsibility to uprate in 2021-22 and all assistance delivered by Social Security Scotland.

These are unprecedented times. With the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, I had to take the difficult decision to delay the launch of Scottish disability assistance which means I will not be reporting on as many forms of assistance as I had hoped to in this reporting cycle. However, despite the pandemic, the Job Start Payment was launched on 17 August 2020 and the Child Winter Heating Assistance on 27 November 2020. The Scottish Child Payment opened for applications in November 2020 with payments being made in February 2021.

This report sets out the inflation adjusted figures for each form of assistance and the rates that will be paid in 2021-2022. There is a duty set out in section 78 of the Act and our Social Security Charter to uprate by inflation, carer's, disability, employment-injury and funeral expense assistance that are in effect and we will bring forward legislation in early 2021 to deliver that. The report also sets out what we intend to do for the types of assistance where there is no requirement to uprate.

This is the second publication of the report on the impact of inflation on devolved social security assistance. I hope that the information provided explains our policy position on uprating for the financial year 2021-22 and the next few years.

Shirley-Anne Somerville
Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People