Social security - Scottish Carer's Assistance consultation: Scottish Government response

Introduction

Scotland’s National Carers Strategy^[1] sets out a comprehensive range of actions to address different aspects of support for unpaid carers. It includes existing initiatives as well as new proposals and a strategic approach for supporting Scotland’s carers and to ensure that their experiences are reflected in the services they use. The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016^[2] aims to ensure that carers have choice and control, and can access support to keep caring situations manageable. It puts in place a system of carers’ rights designed to listen to carers, improve consistency of support to help sustain caring relationships, and protect carers’ health and wellbeing.

The Scotland Act 2016 gives the Scottish Government legislative competence over eleven benefits including Carer’s Allowance^[3]. The overarching framework for the new social security system is set out in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018^[4].

We have already improved support for unpaid carers in Scotland as a priority using our social security powers. We have introduced new support through our Carer's Allowance Supplement and the Young Carer Grant and during the pandemic, provided additional Coronavirus Carer's Allowance Supplements. Our next step is to introduce a new benefit to replace Carer’s Allowance in Scotland.

Our benefits and our new social security system are built on our principles of dignity, fairness and respect. And they are designed with the people who will use them, on the basis of evidence, continuous improvement, efficient delivery and value for money. Next year we will spend a record £5.2 billion through Scottish Government benefits - £776 million more than the funding we are forecast to get from the UK Government through block grant adjustments - providing important support to over 1 million people. This will double to an expected 2 million people in 2024-25, which demonstrates the scale and pace of the expansion of our social security system.

Naming our benefit

We consulted on our replacement for Carer’s Allowance using the working title ‘Scottish Carer's Assistance’. In line with the approach taken for other Scottish benefits, we worked with carers and carer representative organisations to identify the preferred choice for a permanent name for the benefit and tested preferred names through a survey of carers from across the Experience Panels and wider user research. We also took input through our Carer Benefits Advisory Group^[5] and worked with carers to assess ease of finding the name through internet searches. The result of all of this research was the preferred name ‘Carer Support Payment’ which will now be the name for our replacement for Carer’s Allowance in Scotland.