News: Scottish Child Payment to be increased as part of Programme for Government

Currently, the Scottish Child Payment applies if you live in Scotland, are receiving certain benefits and payments and the child you are claiming for is under six years old.

Measures set to be announced include:

• increasing the Scottish Child Payment to £25 per eligible child per week from 14 November
• extending the anti-poverty benefit to children up to 16 years old.

Speaking ahead of her statement to Parliament on the 2022-23 Programme for Government, the First Minister said:

“The Scottish Child Payment is unique to Scotland, the most ambitious child poverty reduction measure in the UK and an important action to mitigate the growing cost of emergency. We doubled the payment to £20 per week per child in April and a further increase to £25 from November means a rise of £150 in less than eight months.”

The First Minister also suggested all those newly eligible will have payments backdated to the date their application is received.

Success of the Scottish Child Payment

Figures published last week identified a total of 104,000 children are in receipt of the payment, with families in Scotland benefiting from a total of £84 million since the payment was first introduced in February 2021.

It is expected more than 400,000 children will be eligible when the payment is extended to those up to 16 years old.

The actions will be announced as part of the Programme for Government, which is due to be presented to Parliament at 2pm today (Tuesday 6 September).