Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether Social Security Scotland benefit levels enable low-income families and parent carers to achieve a minimum digital standard of living, in light of research by Family Fund indicating that only 7% of responding families raising disabled children met the criteria for digital inclusion and that 89% reported at least one financial vulnerability related to digital access.
Low-income families and parent-carers can benefit from a range of support provided by Social Security Scotland. This support, some of which is only available in Scotland, includes Child Disability Payment, the Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Grants and Best Start Foods, as well as Carer Support.
The Scottish Government conducts evaluations of social security policy, with each form of assistance assessed against policy aims, or, in the case of the disability benefits, the impact of policy changes. Published evaluations on the low-income and disability benefits can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/social-security-policy-research-and-evaluation-publications/, with an evaluation of Carer Support Payment due to publish this autumn.
Despite support put in place by the Scottish Government, including cumulatively around £1.5bn mitigating UK Government policies such as the bedroom tax and benefit cap, our impact in tackling the cost of living is constrained by social security mostly remaining reserved to the UK Government.