Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Record
Daily Record
Lifestyle
Linda Howard

Carer’s Allowance set to be replaced by new payment before end of this year

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, according to a new progress report on the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

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.

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 this year totalled £3.48 billion, through payments made by Social Security Scotland and under agency agreements with the Department for Work and Pensions. In 2022-23 our benefits will provide support to over one million people in Scotland."

The Scottish Government also said the final dates for launching Scottish Carer's Assistance have still to be agreed with the UK Government.

To keep up to date with the latest benefits news, join our Money Saving Scotland Facebook page here, follow us on Twitter @Record_Money, o r subscribe to our newsletter which goes out Monday to Friday - sign up here.

READ NEXT

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.