Uprating the 2022 to 2023 Carer’s Allowance Supplement: letter from the Minister for Social Security and Local Government

Elena Whitham MSP
Convener
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP

By email to: sjss.committee@parliament.scot

4 April 2022

Dear Elena,

Carer's Allowance Supplement uprating 2022/23

At my committee appearance on 31 March 2022, I offered to come back to the Committee to confirm the way in which Scottish Ministers intended to meet their commitment to increase the Carer's Allowance Supplement by 6%.

As you are aware, the purpose of the Carer’s Allowance Supplement is to make up the difference between the rate at which Carer’s Allowance is paid and the rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance, as adjusted for inflation. Sections 81(4) and (5) of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, make specific provision as to how this difference should be calculated each year and requires Scottish ministers, before the start of each new tax year, to publish a statement explaining how they have calculated inflation for this purpose. 

We published our uprating intentions in the section 86A report published on 9 December 2021, which states our intention to use the rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance calculated for 2021-22 (£76.50), uprated by September 2021 CPI of 3.1%, in the calculation of Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

In order to meet the commitment to uprate Carer’s Allowance Supplement by 6% we will instead use the rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance calculated for 2021-22 (£76.50) and uprate that by 3.45%. This proposed approach will ensure an overall Carer’s Allowance Supplement rate of £245.70 for the 2022-23 financial year, an increase of 6% on the previous year.

We will publish an addendum to the report in due course to outline this change in approach.

Best regards,

Ben Macpherson