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

8. Uprating Policy for 2021-22

8.1 During the Scottish Budget on 28 January 2021 it was announced that Best Start Grant, Child Winter Heating Assistance, Funeral Support Payment, Job Start Payment and Young Carer Grant will receive an uplift to the payment rates of 1%, which is 0.5% higher than the inflation-adjusted level of assistance. This is in recognition of the exceptional circumstances arising through COVID-19 and the impact it has had on low income households. Carer's Allowance Supplement will be increased by 0.5% as section 81 of the Act does not allow the payment to be increased higher than the rate of inflation.

The new rates of assistance are presented in Table 3.

Note: rounding to the nearest multiple of 5p is applied

8.2 Scottish Ministers will bring forward legislation to uprate the assistance that they have executive competence for namely AA, CA, DLA, PIP, SDA, IIDB and IDB by April 2021. The uprate will be the same rate as applied by the DWP which is the September CPI rate with the payment rounded to the nearest multiple of 5p with the exception of IIDB where the 100% degree of disablement entitlement is rounded to the nearest 10p and the lower rates rounded to the nearest 1p while the IDB is uprated through the triple lock guarantee. A summary of the devolved Social Security assistance rates to be delivered in Scotland in 2021-2022 is available in Annex A.

8.3 The UK Government also uprates the reserved social security benefit and pension rates each year. The rates for 2021-22 can be found at: Benefit and pension rates 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)