The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendment and Transitional Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2022: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

3. Will there be different impacts on different groups of children and young people?

Under the UNCRC, 'children' can refer to: individual children, groups of children, or children in general. Some groups of children will relate to the groups with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010: disability, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation. 'Groups' can also refer to children by age band or setting, or those who are eligible for special protection or assistance.

Most of the changes to SCP are specifically aimed at supporting individuals who are responsible for children under 16. Parents or carers of a child under 16 in receipt of certain qualifying reserved benefits can apply for SCP.

It is also expected that the policy will impact young parents who are responsible for a child under the age of 16, as they can claim SCP on that child's behalf provided they are in receipt of a qualifying reserved benefit.

All SCP recipients will benefit from an increase in the payment from £20 a week to £25 a week.

BSG is aimed at pre-school children and pregnant women while BSF is aimed at children under 3 and pregnant women.

The changes we are proposing to BSG are specifically aimed at:

• increasing support to: individuals granted refugee status, humanitarian protection, or leave under the Afghanistan resettlement schemes or the Ukraine resettlement schemes, who have a child/children from before they arrived in the UK; individuals who took on responsibility for a child/children who was not their own when that child/children was more than 12 months old; and individuals who have been forced to leave their home with a child/children due to domestic abuse

• extending support to children who are looked after by the local authority in residential care
• providing an automatic award of Early Learning Payment and School Age Payment without the need for an application for children where SCP is in payment

The change we are proposing to both BSG and BSF is specifically aimed at extending support to the children of individuals who have a surrogacy order under section 54A of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008

We are also proposing to widen the definition of kinship care across BSG, BSF and SCP to ensure that as we roll out SCP to children aged 6-15, 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.

Under 18s are automatically entitled to BSG without the need for a qualifying benefit. This is also true for 18 and 19 year olds who are still dependent on someone who is either receiving benefits for them or is a kinship carer for them. Pregnant women who are under 18 and their partners are automatically entitled to BSF, without the need for a qualifying benefit. This is also true for parents who are under 18 and have a child who is under 1. Where a pregnant women is under 18 and her or her partner are in receipt of BSF they continue to be eligible for BSF without the need for a qualifying benefit once the pregnant woman turns 18 up until their child turns one. In all other cases, eligibility for the FFP is based upon being in receipt of a qualifying, reserved benefit which means that when eligibility for that benefit ends, entitlement to the FFP also ends. As a result, we are unable to provide payments for a set period of time following a change in circumstances (e.g. an individual entering employment), to allow time for the financial adjustment.