Scottish Government introduce Bill to improve experiences of people using Social Security Scotland services

Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill

The Bill amends the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 to make changes to the Scottish social security system.

The Bill was introduced on 31 October 2023

The Bill makes changes to the Scottish social security system, including:

allowing the Scottish Government to provide care experience assistance and changing the way rules are made for the Scottish Child Payment
changing the processes for making decisions about social security assistance in Scotland
changing the processes where people must pay back assistance received by mistake, and providing that in certain situations a person’s representative may need to pay back assistance received by the person by mistake
allowing information to be gathered for auditing purposes
creating a process for some, or all, of a compensation payment to be paid to the Scottish Government to cover the amount of assistance a person has received for the same accident, injury or illness
changing the legal form of the Scottish Commission on Social Security and giving it more duties