Social security in Scotland is designed to be an effective, empathetic and efficient public service – Ben Macpherson MSP

Social security is a human right – fundamental support that any of us could need at any time in our lives.

The Scottish government will introduce its Adult Disability Payment, replacing the UK’s Personal Independence Payment, next year (Picture: Esme Allen)

It helps to tackle poverty, create a greater level of equality and build a fairer society for all. In Scotland, we are using our limited powers to provide payments to people who need it most, making a real difference to individuals and communities.

The delivery of social security is our biggest and newest public service development since devolution. Social Security Scotland has achieved a lot already – and at great pace since it was established in 2018. It now administers 11 benefits, seven of which are completely new forms of financial support and distinctive in the UK.

Our benefits support a range of people across the country. We are supporting families with disabled children, including helping with heating costs. We are assisting people who need help paying for a funeral and we are providing additional financial support for carers. We are helping young people entering the workplace and we are supporting thousands of families with young children.

In the last year, despite the impact of the pandemic, we introduced four new benefits, including our Scottish Child Payment which gives eligible families £40 every four weeks. The payment is designed to directly tackle child poverty. It has already supported more than 108,000 children under the age of six and it will be rolled out to under-16s by the end of 2022.

In 2020/21, people benefited from £109 million in direct payments through ten of our benefits. And I’ve seen for myself the difference these payments are making. It’s been uplifting to hear from parents who are using the extra money from Best Start Grant to pay for things like warm clothes, toys and books – helping children to get the best start in life.

I recently had the privilege of meeting a group of remarkable young carers in Edinburgh who could benefit from our £300 young carer grant when they turn 16. It is so important that we recognise the contribution of young carers in Scotland and how much of their time and energy they dedicate to looking after others.

From its inception, we designed Social Security Scotland with input from people with experience of the UK government's benefits system. We’ve done this by working with more than 2,000 volunteers on our experience panels – people who have lived experience of the UK system.

We’ve also set up client panels with people who have experience of our new social security system and are helping us to continuously improve. We’re doing this because we want applying for benefits to be as simple as possible. We’ve heard how the UK system can be complicated and we are striving to do things differently.

Making sure we get money to people who need it is our priority but we also want to make sure that people are treated with dignity, fairness and respect when they contact us. I recently spoke in Parliament about the importance of people getting the benefits they are entitled to. We are speaking directly to relevant organisations to proactively share information with people and communities about the assistance they may be able to receive from Social Security Scotland.

The latest Social Security Scotland client survey shows our approach is working. Of the 10,500 people who took part, an overwhelming number had a very positive experience with the organisation: 92 per cent of respondents rated their overall experience as “very good” or “good”; 94 per cent who spoke to a client adviser said they were treated with kindness. Eight-seven per cent said it was “easy” or “very easy” to find information online or make contact with us to learn more about benefits.

The investment we are making in Scotland’s new social security system goes beyond the financial support we are providing. Last month, we announced 2,000 more jobs to help us deliver benefits across Scotland. We are investing in the Scottish economy and we are creating secure, long-term employment opportunities for people.

By autumn 2022, Social Security Scotland will directly employ more than 3,500 people across Scotland, boosting our investment in local economies and creating jobs, particularly in our head office in Dundee and in Glasgow. We estimate that these jobs will help contribute a further £280 million to the Scottish economy. Moreover, our spending on benefits generally has a stimulating effect on the economy.

We are working hard to ensure the people we recruit to deliver our new service reflect our values and the diversity of the population we serve. Over the last year, we’ve increased the representation of minority ethnic people and disabled people in Social Security Scotland’s workforce.

Our Child Disability Payment pilot has been successful in three local authority areas and in a couple of weeks will go nationwide. Next year, it will be followed by Adult Disability Payment, our largest and most complex disability benefit, replacing the Department for Work and Pension’s Personal Independence Payment.

Alongside this, we are transferring hundreds of thousands of cases from the DWP to Social Security Scotland. We are ready to meet the challenges that such a significant operation presents and we are taking extreme care to make sure this is done smoothly and securely – and that everyone continues to get paid the right amount at the right time.

New heating payments will then be introduced, and when we have initiated all of our planned benefits we will be reaching a third of the people of Scotland – from the youngest to the oldest members of our society.

We are building Social Security Scotland on strong foundations and we are committed to providing an effective, empathetic and efficient public service – a collective investment to be proud of for the benefit of all of Scotland, in the period ahead and for decades to come.

Ben Macpherson is minister for social security and SNP MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.