Take-up rates of Scottish benefits: November 2023

Further Information

Further information about these benefits and how to apply can be found on the Scottish Government’s website:

• Scottish Child Payment
• Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods
• Funeral Support Payment
• Job Start Payment
• Young Carer Grant

Interim evaluations of these benefits have been published by the Scottish Government. Social Security Scotland publish statistics about the number of applications and payments made for these benefits. Due to revisions to previous take-up rate estimates, comparisons over time should be made with the latest figures in this year’s publication rather than last year’s publication.

The DWP publish information on the number of young children in families claiming Universal Credit on Stat-Xplore. These statistics are available from June 2020; prior to this, specific monitoring information shared by the DWP has been used. HMRC publish similar information for Tax Credits.

The aggregated estimates provided by DWP for estimating take-up of Job Start Payment have the following caveats:

• The estimates exclude self-employed people and those employed by small businesses that are not enrolled on RTI systems.
• The estimates only count people the first time they meet the specified criteria. However, while people can become eligible more than once, a person cannot reapply for Job Start Payment within two years of receiving the benefit.

UKMOD is maintained, developed and managed by the Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of Essex. The results and their interpretation are the Scottish Government’s sole responsibility.

Any questions about this publication can sent by email to the Scottish Government’s Central Enquiry Unit mailbox (ceu@gov.scot), addressed to:

Social Security Policy Analysis and Modelling Branch

Social Security Analysis, Forecasting and Evaluation Unit (SSAFE)

Communities Analysis Division

Directorate for Tackling Child Poverty and Social Justice