Please see attached a letter from the Social Security Department (excerpts below) with regards to the new Scottish Child Payment that is available from the 9th November 2020.
Scottish Child Payment
I am pleased to tell you that from 9th November 2020 we will start taking applications for our newest benefit, Scottish Child Payment.
Scottish Child Payment will be the biggest benefit that we have introduced to date. Initially, it will be available for those children under 6 years old with194,000 children expected to be eligible in the first year . Given the scale of demand, we are taking applications now so that we can make sure that we have all the information we need to make payments as soon as possible after the benefit officially starts on Monday 15 February 2021.
As you well know, this is being introduced in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Getting money to people will be hugely important in helping hard hit families to financially recover from this. However, the pandemic continues to have an impact on the way we are operating and the way in which we deliver services. This is a further factor in taking these applications as early as possible.
Families who meet the criteria and are eligible to apply will receive a payment of £10 per child, per week (equivalent to £520 per year) and payment will be made on a four-weekly basis. There are no limits to the number of children per family who can receive this benefit.
We are acutely aware of the economic impact the pandemic has had on the people of Scotland, and so to help support as many children and low income families as possible we want to make sure the take-up of Scottish Child Payment is fully maximised.
We’re also pleased to inform you that from Monday 9 November we’ll be returning to our full telephone opening hours of 8am to 6pm. We’re expecting that Scottish Child Payment will generate a lot of interest in our service and this will help us to keep our call waiting times to as low a level as we can.
To support this we have produced a range of materials and communication products, including posters and social media graphics, specific to Scottish Child Payment. These can be found on our website at https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/guidance-resources/resources . Your employees are also able to order hard copies of materials should this be a requirement.
We would be grateful if you could cascade this information to areas within your organisation who may have an interest.
We will continue to communicate our message through our social media channels @SocSecScot on Twitter and Social Security Scotland on Facebook, and would appreciate if your organisation was able to share these posts through your existing communication channels.
Our Local Delivery Relationship Leads are always available and happy to help provide more information on the Scottish Child Payment and all of Social Security Scotland’s services. Their contact details are held at www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/what-we-do/local-delivery/local-delivery-relationship-leads.