At Social Security Scotland we believe benefits are a human right. We aim to serve everybody in Scotland equally and fairly, treating people as individuals. The values of dignity, fairness, and respect are at the heart of everything we do. We know that any of us may need support at any time.
Social Security Scotland delivers 14 benefits with more to come. When all benefits have been introduced, and disability and carer benefit awards have been transferred over from the Department for Work and Pensions, we will support around 2 million children and adults – that’s more than one in three people in Scotland.
Providing information to support benefit applications – we need you!
Partnership working across the health sector plays a crucial role in helping to make sure that everyone can access social security. We are hugely grateful for the role that community link workers play in supporting people to thrive and live independent lives and would like to ask you to help us promote our payments and help people to apply.
One way to support people in accessing social security is to provide information to support a disability benefit application. This information is vital in helping us to understand how an applicant’s disability affects their day-to-day life. Often, they may have the information we need at home, such as a hospital appointment letter or a prescription list. But they can also ask Social Security Scotland to collect it for them.
Community link workers can also provide supporting information and direct applicants to health and social care professionals like occupational therapists, paid carers and physiotherapists. The professional doesn’t need to be a GP.
We recognise that collecting it can involve a lot of time and effort. So I would remind you may be able to claim a fee if we’ve asked you to provide supporting information.
Spreading the word about our different approach and support available
When designing our social security system, we listened to people who will need and use it. They told us how difficult it can be for some people to apply for the help they’re entitled to. One of the ways we responded was by introducing more support to help people to access benefits, and we’d like to encourage you to tell the people you support about it.
One example is our team of community-based specialist advisers who are available in every local authority across Scotland. People can ask for this support to be provided wherever they feel most comfortable, in their home, in an office, at a partnership location or over the phone.
We also have an in-house team of health and social care professionals to help the team who process our applications make decisions on applications. Where an assessment is needed a client will see an appropriately qualified professional and they won’t face a functional assessment.
Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment provide extra money to help with some of the costs that can come with having a disability. Importantly, these benefits are not means tested.
Support us in getting money into pockets of people that need it most
Alongside our disability benefits, we have benefits for carers including Carer Support Payment, which will be available nationally in early November. Carers Allowance Supplement and Young Carer Grant are also available to eligible carers.
People might think that they are not eligible for financial support because they work, but this is not always the case. People in and out of work can receive many of the payments we administer, including those for low-income families such as our five family payments (Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Foods, Best Start Grant, Early Learning Payment and School Age Payment) that provide vital cash as children grow up to the age of 16.
We also deliver Job Start Payment. This is a one-off payment of over £300 to help young people, who have been out of work for six months and getting who get qualifying benefits, meet the costs of starting a new job.
Funeral Support Payment is available to bereaved people who get certain benefits to help towards the cost of a funeral.
Lastly, we have Child Winter Heating Payment and Winter Heating Payment. These are automatic payments to help with fuel bills. Later this year, we will also be launching Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.
We view the third sector, and particularly community link workers, as our partners in making sure that people get the support that they are eligible for. Help us to spread the word about Social Security Scotland and the benefits we deliver and with your help, we can support thousands more eligible families, children, adults and carers. A full list of our benefits is available at Social Security Scotland.
You can download free resources about each of our benefits here.
To find out more about our benefits and apply online, over the phone or book an appointment to apply in-person, people can visit Mygov.scot or call Social Security Scotland free on 0800 182 2222.
Gayle Devlin is Deputy Director of Health and Social Care
