The Scottish Government is working towards delivering a new benefit that will start to replace Carer’s Allowance by the end of this year, with a full national rollout planned for Spring 2024.
Scottish Carer's Assistance promises to provide an ‘improved service’, designed with carers to meet their needs, and in line with Scottish Government principles of fairness, dignity and respect. The new benefit will maintain the extra support provided by Carer's Allowance Supplement - two additional payments of £245.70 which were made in June and December this year - to increase Carer's Allowance (£69.70 per week) by over 13 per cent, and will help to link carers to wider support and services.
New details have been published in the regulations about transferring existing claimants on Carer’s Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to the Carer Support Payment, for people living in Scotland. The change in benefit and provider does not apply to anyone living in England or Wales, unless they move north of the border.
The regulations state that Scottish Ministers have developed a “safe and secure process, which will require no action on behalf of the individual wherever possible”.
In a nutshell, the guidance says that it has been designed in line with the following case transfer principles:
- no individual will be required to re-apply for their benefit
- individuals will receive clear communications about the case transfer process
- individuals will continue to receive the right payment, at the right time
- case transfer process will happen as soon as possible while ensuring it is safe and secure
The regulations also state: “When an individual's carer benefit has been selected for transfer, Scottish Ministers will receive data and information relevant to the individual's most recent Carer's Allowance award from DWP.
“Once Scottish Ministers have received this information, the regulations make provision for the Scottish Ministers to notify the individual of the intention to transfer them to Carer Support Payment. This notice will set out the process for that transfer.”
A public consultation on Scottish Carer's Assistance, launched in February 2022, proposes providing additional support as part of the new benefit to those caring for more than one person, in the form of a new payment worth £520 per year - currently known as Carer's Additional Person Payment - to ‘recognise the impact of multiple caring roles’.
The Scottish Government said this would expand on the previous commitment to a Carer's Additional Child Payment - the delivery of which was affected by the coronavirus impacts on the social security programme.
The report states: “We are working with carers, support organisations and the wider public to identify the priority changes to improve Scottish Carer's Assistance in future and to deliver these as soon as possible.
“When we have introduced our new benefit and completed Case Transfer for Scottish Carer's Assistance, we will look to introduce further changes that help remove barriers to education, recognise a wider variety of caring situations, provide more financial stability to carers, and, for those carers who want to and for whom it is feasible, make it easier to take up and maintain employment.”
It added: “In the consultation we also asked for views on a long term carer payment. This is an initial proposal that could help those whose incomes are most affected by their caring role, including carers who have been caring for many years.”
Minister for Social Security and Local Government, Ben Macpherson, recently said: “The level of support we provided in 2022 totalled £3.48 billion, through payments made by Social Security Scotland and under agency agreements with the Department for Work and Pensions.
“Looking forward, we will continue our work to devolve social security benefits. We will continue our dynamic and pro-active approach to delivering devolved Scottish social security.”
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