Welfare

The UK Government must complete and publish a full assessment of the impact on renters of their decisions to freeze Local Housing Allowance and cut Universal Credit, which risk pushing many households into poverty, problem debt, and homelessness, according to a number of housing groups.

The majority of people in Scotland back keeping the £20 per week increase to Universal Credit until at least the financial situation created by Covid is more stable, polling for Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has found.

People who live in Dundee City, Perth and Kinross and the Western Isles are the first to access new face-to-face support when applying for Scottish benefits ahead of a full rollout later this year. The introduction of Social Security Scotland’s new Local Delivery service coincided with the lau

The Scottish Government has written to the UK Government on seven occasions to call for the £20-per-week uplift to Universal Credit to be made permanent and extended to legacy benefits, Nicola Sturgeon will tell trade unions today. The First Minister representatives from Scotland’s trade

The Scottish Government has announced that Best Start Foods payments will increase this month. The payment supports low-income families to buy healthy food for children under the age of three, and forms part of the Scottish Government’s national mission of eradicating child poverty.

The new Child Disability Payment has opened for applications from people living in three pilot areas. Families of children with a disability or long-term health condition living in Dundee City, Perth and Kinross and Western Isles council areas who need financial support should apply to the new syste

Plans for an additional payment for some unpaid carers are being considered by the Scottish Parliament’s social justice and social security committee. The Carer’s Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Bill will double the Carer’s Allowance Supplement (CAS) to be paid in December. It will

The £20 increase in Universal Credit brought in during the coronavirus pandemic should be made permanent, according to senior politicians at the UK’s four parliaments.

The UK Supreme Court has held that the “two-child limit” used in calculating part of child tax credit payments is compatible with Articles 8, 12, and 14 of the ECHR after an appeal was brought by two adults and eight children against decisions of the Secretary of State for

Eligible families can apply for a Scottish Government grant of at least £120 to help with the cost of school uniforms. The Scottish Government and local authority leaders have reached an agreement to increase the national school clothing grant to a minimum of £120 per eligible primary sc

Social justice secretary Shona Robison has urged eligible young people to apply for Job Start Payment if they are starting a new job after a period of unemployment. Eligible 16-24-year-olds, who have been on certain benefits for six months or more, can apply for the one-off payment worth £252.

The Scottish Greens are calling on the Scottish Government to guarantee full mitigation of the benefit cap. The benefit cap is a UK Government policy that caps the amount of social security a household can receive, regardless of the level of need.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has welcomed encouraging changes from the Scottish Government around adult disability payments, but is urging the government to go further to improve the payment for more disabled people by scrapping the 20 metre rule. The Scottish Government’s response to the co

The UK Parliament’s Scottish Affairs Committee has published its report into welfare policy in Scotland in which MPs have called on the UK Government and Scottish Government to improve information sharing to implement policy and to work together to improve benefit take-up.

HMRC was wrong to refuse a backdated claim for child tax credits for asylum seekers who had been granted refugee status, a judge in the Court of Session has ruled in the first successful social security test case for asylum seekers and tax credits in the UK.