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

4. Performance of the System and Delivery of the Charter

4.1 Duty to promote take-up

Ensuring people can access all of the social security benefits to which they are entitled is a moral imperative, legal duty, and fundamental priority of the Scottish Government. Under the provisions of the 2018 Act Scottish Ministers are required to prepare a Benefit Take-up Strategy to promote the take-up of Scottish benefits, and have so far published two such strategies – the first in October 2019, and the second in October 2021.

The next Benefit Take-up Strategy is due to be published by October 2026. In the meantime, Scottish Ministers have committed to publishing an action-plan setting out our approach to supporting seldom-heard groups to access their entitlements by the end of 2024 and will continue to publish the annual update on take-up rates for Scottish benefits.

The most recent Benefit Take-up Strategy sets out five guiding principles for making social security in Scotland accessible:

1. Prioritise Person-Centred Approaches;

2. Communicate and Engage Effectively;

3. Bring Services to People;

4. Encourage Cross-System Collaboration; and

5. Continuously Learn and Improve

These principles are applied through a number of take-up initiatives, including access to independent advocacy support, continued investment in accessible advice via Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships, and targeted marketing of devolved payments. Perhaps most importantly, the principles form the basis for social security policy development and delivery, ensuring we prioritise person-centred approaches.

To advance our understanding of how these principles might be best applied in supporting particular groups, the Scottish Government commissioned the Poverty Alliance to facilitate a Citizen’s Panel exploring stigma surrounding accessing benefits. Their report was published in May 2024. Further to this, in November 2023, the Scottish Government commissioned the Scottish Centre for Social Research to undertake research on seldom-heard groups. The findings from this have now also been published and both reports will inform the aforementioned action plan.

The Scottish Government has committed to investing over £4.6 million to support the delivery of welfare advice and income maximisation services in 2024-25. This includes more than £645,000 to continue to support the local delivery of Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships, which see Welfare Rights Advisors placed into over 160 GP practices across Scotland. Partnerships are targeted in the most deprived communities, as well as remote, rural and island settings, and this embedded model continues to highlight the value in bringing advice to people in non-stigmatising settings where they already go, with 89% of all users accessing welfare rights advice for the first time.

Finally, as highlighted in the most recent estimates of Scottish benefit take-up rates, published in November 2023, overall estimated take-up rates are high and relatively stable across the Five Family Payments, including Scottish Child Payment. These rates suggest the vast majority of eligible low-income families in, or at risk of poverty, are taking-up these entitlements. However, we know more work is required to ensure this is replicated across all devolved payments, and we continue to work with the Scottish Government, wider stakeholders, and people with lived experience to identify, develop, and implement improvements.

4.2 Independent Advocacy

Section 10(2) of the 2018 Act requires Scottish Ministers to ensure that independent advocacy services are available to disabled people who require support to claim Scottish social security entitlements.

To meet this requirement, the Scottish Government launched the Social Security Independent Advocacy Service and committed to investing £20.4 million over the first four years of the provision.

Advocacy support is available to anyone who identifies as disabled and requires support to engage effectively with Social Security Scotland.

The service is independent of Scottish Government and is delivered by VoiceAbility, a charity with over 40 years’ experience of delivering independent advocacy services.

The Social Security Independent Advocacy Service is free and builds on our human rights-based approach, making social security more accessible to disabled people in Scotland – and supporting them to be more involved in processes and decisions which affect them.

To date, the service has supported more than 5,000 people to access and apply for Social Security Scotland assistance.

4.3 Scottish Commission on Social Security

The Scottish Commission on Social Security (SCoSS), established in January 2019, is an independent advisory Non-Departmental Public Body with a primary purpose to undertake scrutiny of the Scottish social security system.

SCoSS produces its own annual report and accounts, which can be found on the SCoSS website. In 2023-24 it produced nine scrutiny reports, on:

• The Disability Assistance (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (including a further report on late Scottish Government amendments to reflect technical amendments to the short-term assistance)
• The Carer’s Assistance (Carer Support Payment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023
• The Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024
• The Social Security (Residence and Presence Requirements) (Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Lebanon) (Scotland) Regulations 2023
• The Social Security (Residence Requirements) (Sudan) (Scotland) Regulations 2023
• The Disability Assistance for Older People (Scotland) Regulations 2024
• The Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) 2024 Regulations.
• The Carer’s Assistance (Carer Support Payment) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024
• The Disability Assistance (Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 2024

The minutes of all Board and Audit Sub-Committee meetings and all scrutiny reports were published on the SCoSS website in 2023-24.

4.4 Our Charter and the Charter Measurement Framework

The 2019 Social Security Charter set out clear commitments agreed upon, through co-design, with people who had experience of the UK benefits system. The purpose of the Charter Measurement Framework is to provide transparent accountability as to how these commitments are met, with the most recent available results published in November 2023.

Section 18 of the 2018 Act requires the Charter to be reviewed every five years and the first review, which continued the co-design approach seen in the creation of the Charter, concluded in late 2023. Clients, people from seldom heard groups, partner stakeholders, the Scottish Commission on Social Security (SCOSS) and staff from Social Security Scotland were all instrumental within the review process.

Unlike when the Charter was first created, this review was carried out against the backdrop of an operational social security system and involved people and organisations with experience of Social Security Scotland. Full details of the research methodology and findings, and the detailed background behind the changes made, are included in the Charter review’s research findings report published in March 2024.

The Charter in its revised form, continues to uphold the eight Scottish social security principles set out in section 1 of the 2018 Act, re-enforcing the Scottish Government’s strongly held view that social security is a human right. Research findings showed that the Charter continued to reflect values which align with the priorities of clients, Social Security Scotland colleagues and partner organisations.

The addition of some new commitments and the changes to the structure of the Charter have therefore largely been made to reflect a social security system that is now operational, and further improvements were made to support our commitment to the inclusive and consistent use of language.

Following conclusion of the review, Scottish Ministers laid a proposed revised Charter in Parliament which received Parliamentary approval on 26 June 2024.