Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Delivering new benefits
Background
In April 2020, the Scottish Government took over responsibility for social security payments.
Initially most social security payments were still administered by the UK's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). However, Social Security Scotland, set up in September 2018, is scaling up. It will ultimately take responsibility for the administration of a range of new social security benefits.
The Committee wants to see that this transition happens smoothly. As a result it will be looking closely at the performance of Social Security Scotland and the delivery of new benefits throughout the session.
This short animation, taken from SPICe's analysis of the social security budget for 2024-25, shows the extent of the changes to social security administration in Scotland.
In November 2021 the Committee made its first visit to Social Security Scotland's new office in Dundee. This allowed the Committee to see how the agency was scaling up ahead of the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment and the formal introduction of the Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payments.
Key work
The Committee is particularly interested in the rollout and development of certain benefits, including:
- Adult Disability Payment
- Child Disability Payment
- Winter Heating Payment
Scrutiny
VoiceAbility
On Thursday 30 September 2021 the Minister for Social Security and Local Government (Ben Macpherson MSP) advised us that VoiceAbility had been awarded a four year contract to run an independent advocacy service. The service aims to support disabled people so that they can understand and access Social Security Scotland benefits.
Watch the Minister talk about awarding VoiceAbility the contract, or read about it in the Official Report of the meeting.
The service started in January 2022, aiming to support anyone who self-identifies as disabled, as well as the parents, guardians or carers of disabled children.
On Thursday 24 November 2022, we met with representatives from VoiceAbility to scrutinise the progress of their service.
Watch the Meeting with VoiceAbility.