Amendment regulations extend Scottish Child Payment to children aged 6-15

The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 came into force in November 2022 and provided for the extension of the Scottish Child Payment to children aged 6 to 15, the Scottish Government has said¹. The same regulations affected the Five Family Payments, which include Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Foods and the three Best Start Grants, and made changes including automatic payments of the Best Start Grant Early Learning Payment and School Age Payment¹.

The Scottish Child Payment was introduced on 15 February 2021 for low-income families with children under six, initially set at £10 per week per child with no limit on the number of eligible children¹. In March 2022 the Scottish Government published "Best Start, Bright Futures: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022 to 2026", committing to double the value of the payment from April 2022, deliver it in full to all eligible children under 16, and further increase the value to £25 per child per week by the end of 2022¹. The government states these commitments were delivered on 14 November 2022¹. A separate Scottish Government analytical report, published on 2 November 2022, confirmed that "from November the Scottish Child Payment will increase to £25 per week per eligible child"².

Applications for children aged 6 to 15 inclusive have been taken since 14 November 2022, according to One Parent Families Scotland³. The Mental Health and Money Advice service states that existing clients received a text message or email on the morning of 14 November alerting them that applications were open, and that a child who turned six before that date required a fresh application⁴. The payment is administered by Social Security Scotland through an application-based process and paid every four weeks¹. One Parent Families Scotland says the payment is £28.20 per week for each child under 16, and that it does not affect other benefits being received³. A Scottish Government evaluation published in September 2025 gives the rate as £27.15 per week for every eligible child aged under 16⁵. The two figures are dated differently and the sources do not reconcile them.

Take-up of the payment across all children under 16 in 2023-24 was estimated at 89%, the first full financial year estimate since eligibility was extended in November 2022⁶. For children under six the estimated take-up rate was 97%, and for children aged 6 to under 16 it was 85%⁶. Local authority estimates ranged from 84% to 94%⁶.

Why it matters for households

The extension brought families with children aged 6 to 15 into a payment that had previously stopped at a child's sixth birthday. Households in Scotland receiving qualifying benefits such as Universal Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit, Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit can apply, whether or not they are in work³. Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction and Child Benefit on their own are not qualifying benefits³. Kinship carers can apply where they can show they look after the child³. Payment stops after the week a child turns 16⁴.

The Scottish Government's November 2022 cost of living report put UK inflation at 10.1%, the highest since 1982, and estimated around 860,000 (35%) fuel-poor households in Scotland, of which 600,000 (24%) in extreme fuel poverty². It said that by the end of March 2023 the Scottish Government would have allocated almost £3 billion in measures to mitigate the cost of living crisis for households².

What happens next

The Scottish Fiscal Commission published updated forecasts for the Scottish Child Payment on 9 December 2022¹. Official statistics are published quarterly, covering applications and caseload for the period¹. The Scottish Government's evaluation of the Five Family Payments, published in September 2025, states that updated estimates of take-up rates would be published in autumn 2025⁵.