Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill
The Bill amends the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 to make changes to the Scottish social security system.
The Bill is at Stage 1
Contents
Overview
The Bill makes changes to the Scottish social security system, including:
- allowing the Scottish Government to provide care experience assistance and changing the way rules are made for the Scottish Child Payment
- changing the processes for making decisions about social security assistance in Scotland
- changing the processes where people must pay back assistance received by mistake, and providing that in certain situations a person’s representative may need to pay back assistance received by the person by mistake
- allowing information to be gathered for auditing purposes
- creating a process for some, or all, of a compensation payment to be paid to the Scottish Government to cover the amount of assistance a person has received for the same accident, injury or illness
- changing the legal form of the Scottish Commission on Social Security and giving it more duties
Read more about what this Bill does in the explanatory notes (210KB, pdf) posted 31 October 2023
Why the Bill was created
The Scottish Government introduced the Bill to enhance the Scottish system of social security. It expects the Bill to:
- improve the experience of people using the services provided by Social Security Scotland
- deliver increased efficiency and value for money
- bring into effect the findings of an independent review into the remit and operation of the Scottish Commission on Social Security
You can read more about why the Bill has been created in the Policy Memorandum (344KB, pdf) posted 31 October 2023