Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018: progress report 2023 to 2024

3. Introduction

The 2018 Act creates the legal framework under which social security benefits can be delivered by Scottish Ministers. These are:

• Carer's assistance
• Cold-spell heating assistance
• Winter heating assistance
• Disability assistance
• Early years assistance
• Employment-injury assistance
• Funeral expense assistance
• Housing assistance
• Short-term assistance

The 2018 Act also provides Scottish Ministers with powers to establish schemes to 'top-up' social security assistance provided by the UK Government and to provide a Carer's Allowance Supplement. The Scottish Child Payment has been established under these top-up powers.

The 2018 Act also sets out the following key features of the Scottish social security system and a requirement to report annually to the Scottish Parliament on performance:

• A duty to promote the take-up of Scottish social security.
• A requirement for Scottish Ministers to ensure that suitable advocacy support is available for those who need help to navigate the Scottish social security system due to a disability.
• A Scottish Commission on Social Security which, amongst other things, scrutinises regulations and reports on the extent to which the expectations set out in the Charter are being fulfilled.
• The creation of the Scottish social security charter which sets out standards for the provision of social security in Scotland that are aligned with the Scottish social security principles.

The following sections provide a report on the performance of the system in respect of these key features.