Social Security Scotland

01/09/2026

Are you a kinship carer?

If you get Universal Credit or other qualifying benefits you can can apply for Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods.

01/09/2026

28/08/2026

If you need to add a child to your existing award, you can easily do this through the online Scottish Child Payment form. There is no need to do a completely new application

27/08/2026

Are your parents of pension age and living with a disability, terminal illness or long-term health condition?

If so they might be entitled to Pension Age Disability Payment, the replacement for the DWP’s Attendance Allowance.

26/08/2026

If you're due a payment on Monday 31 August, you will usually receive it by the end of Friday 28 August because of the bank holiday.

Best Start Foods payments are not affected.

All other payment dates will stay the same.

Our phone lines and web-chat will be open as usual on Monday 31 August.

25/08/2026

Our 5 family payments help people who get tax credits or other qualifying benefits to manage the costs of raising a family. Our payments can spend on anything you need for example, trips away, extra treats or new clothes!

👨🏼‍👩🏼‍👧🏼 Scottish Child Payment: over £100 every four weeks that you can get for every child you look after who's under 16 years of age.

🍼 Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment: £796.65 for your first child then £398.35 for any child that comes after your first

🧸 Best Start Grant Early Learning Payment: £331.95 payment when your child is between 2 years old and 3 years and 6 months old

📚 Best Start Grant School Age Payment: £331.95 when your child is first old enough to start primary school

🍎 Best Start Foods: a prepaid card to buy healthy food during pregnancy until your kids reach the age of 3

25/08/2026

Apply for Scottish Child Payment today - https://www.mygov.scot/scottish-child-payment

25/08/2026

24/08/2026

If you’re applying for disability benefits, providing supporting information with your application will help us make decisions faster.

Often people have the supporting information we need to hand but do not realise it.

Supporting information includes things like:

▪️ medical reports
▪️ a social care assessment
▪️ a prescription list
▪️ test results

If you need help to get supporting information, you can ask us to gather it for you.