Welfare

The system for administering emergency payments used by people who have run out of money for food and other essentials could be improved but needs more cash, according to a new report.

Scotland’s largest membership organisation for private landlords and letting agents has described it as “disappointing” that the Scottish Government won’t support a measure which would increase the availability of homes for those on Universal Credit. The Scottish Association

A £1 million fund is to be made available to help Fife Council tenants who are struggling to cope with the effects of Universal Credit (UC). As part of the council's commitment to a fairer Fife, convener of the community and housing services committee, Cllr Judy Hamilton, said the decision wil

A new benefit to help low income families with school-related costs is now open for applications.

The Scottish Government will need to manage volatility in its Budget as the devolution of tax and spending powers becomes fully operational, according to the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission. The Commission published its official five-year economic, tax and social security forecasts today

Local authorities in Scotland spent more than £62 million over the last year under the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) scheme.

The equivalent of a classroom of children will enter poverty in Scotland every day unless benefit changes proposed by the Scottish Government are introduced sooner, a think-tank has warned.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has today outlined five key recommendations for Scotland’s newly devolved disability assistance payments.

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has called on the UK Government to scrap the “fundamentally unfair” benefit cap after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the policy.

A contract to design Scotland’s new social security assessments system has been awarded as figures revealed high satisfaction levels with the new service. The Deloitte contract, worth £2.3 million over two years, will focus on design of the assessment centre network across Scotland, incl

The Scottish Government has done a good job of delivering its first set of devolved benefits but the real challenge is still to come, a new report has warned. Carers and new parents successfully received payments in 2018 and the country's new benefits agency, Social Security Scotland, was set up, bu

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland said the underlying causes of poverty must be tackled as new figures revealed nearly a third of a million low income households accessed emergency funding to help with the costs of essentials such as food and heating in the past six years. The Scotti

The progress made in building Scotland’s new public service has been outlined today, a year since the Social Security (Scotland) Bill 2018 was passed in Parliament. Social security secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said that the £197 million in benefit payments made by the Scottish Gover

Scottish Labour has called on the Scottish Government to use the new powers over social security to ensure automatic payment of the Universal Credit housing element to landlords. Analysis by the party found that fewer than half of eligible households have opted for the direct payments.

Thousands of people in Scotland are struggling with essential household bills especially Council Tax, a debt charity has warned. StepChange Debt Charity Scotland said it was contacted by over 30,000 people last year across every constituency seeking debt help.