The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendment and Transitional Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2022: business and regulatory impact assessment

Overview of changes being proposed for Five Family Payments (FFP)

We are amending the regulations to allow SCP to be rolled out to children aged between 6 and 15 and to increase the value of the payment to £25 a week. In the unfortunate situation where a child to whom a claim relates dies, these amendments will also provide for a payment, equivalent to the value of Scottish Child Payments made in the 12 weeks prior to the child’s death, to be made. This will bring the payment closer in line with the reserved benefits which act as qualifying benefits for SCP. These qualifying benefits allow a run on of up to 12 weeks run-on of payment in the same circumstances. Changes will also allow reinstatement of SCP within 12 weeks of effective change, rather than within 12 weeks of the original determination.

We want to make changes to BSG in order to:

• introduce auto-award for the Early Learning and School Age Payments for eligible applicants in receipt of SCP, this will reduce the need for applications and increase uptake;
• provide new exceptions to the general rule that an individual is only entitled to the higher Pregnancy and Baby Payment when they are applying in respect of their first child; and
• remove the condition that the child is not looked after by the local authority in residential care.

The amendments will also make changes to both BSG and BSF to update the meaning of surrogacy to mirror changes to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 and ensure that all individuals who are responsible for a child through formal surrogacy arrangements can be classed as having responsibility for the child.

We also want to widen the definition of kinship care across BSG, BSF and SCP to ensure that, as we roll out Scottish Child Payment to children aged between 6 and 15, eligible kinship carers who are not related to the child but are known to them and have a pre-existing relationship with the child are included.

Forecasts on the number of new SCP recipients, increased value of SCP and increased uptake for BSG due to auto-award

More than 400,000 children under 16 are expected to be eligible for the Scottish Child Payment when it is rolled out to eligible children aged 6-15 later this year. We expect 304,000 children to be actively in receipt of the payment in 2022/23.^[5]

The Scottish Fiscal Commission forecast that by automatically making awards for the BSG Early Learning and School Age Payments to recipients of Scottish Child Payment, when children reach the appropriate age for the application window, there could be an increase in the take-up rates for those two BSG payments.^[6] The following tables show the forecasts for the increases in take-up for BSG Early Learning and School Age Payment and an updated forecast for the increase on SCP and BSG expenditure.

Table 1 - Take-up rates for BSG Early Learning and School Age Payments

Table 2 – Illustrative impact on BSG and SCP expenditure