Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government assumed Executive Competence for the devolved benefits on 1 April 2020. To date the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland have delivered eight social security benefits, including four brand new forms of assistance. The most recent of these was Job Start Payment, launched on 17 August to help young people with the costs of starting a new job. We will open applications for the Scottish Child Payment in November this year, and are also on track to deliver Child Winter Heating Assistance by the end of the year, subject to getting the data we require from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

As I set out in my statement to Parliament on 1 April, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the Scottish Government, Social Security Scotland and DWP, whose support we need to transfer social security powers. As a result, we are having to rework our timetable for delivery of the remaining devolved benefits, which is a complex exercise. We need to take into account the impact of the pandemic not only on our own services, but also on the availability of health and social care professionals to bring their expertise to the co-design of disability and carer benefits at a time when many are still needed on the frontline, and on DWP’s capacity to support the transfer of social security powers. I will update Parliament later this year.