Which benefits are devolved to Scotland and which still come from the DWP?

Full answer

Following the Scotland Act 2016, a significant, though partial, range of social security powers were devolved from the UK Government to the Scottish Parliament, and Scotland now delivers these through its own dedicated agency, Social Security Scotland, rather than through the DWP that continues to administer these benefits in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Fully devolved and now delivered by Social Security Scotland include Adult Disability Payment, which has replaced Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for people in Scotland, Child Disability Payment, which has replaced Disability Living Allowance for children in Scotland, Carer Support Payment, which has replaced Carer's Allowance for people in Scotland, along with entirely new Scotland-only benefits that have no equivalent elsewhere in the UK, such as the Scottish Child Payment and the Best Start Grant package. Despite this substantial transfer of specific benefits, the largest and most significant benefits by both spending and claimant numbers remain reserved to the UK Government and delivered by the DWP UK-wide, including Universal Credit itself, the State Pension, and Pension Credit, meaning a Scottish resident's overall benefit position typically involves navigating both Social Security Scotland for their devolved entitlements and the DWP for their reserved ones simultaneously, rather than dealing with a single unified system. This dual-system arrangement can create genuine practical complexity for claimants and advisers alike, since eligibility rules, application processes, and appeal routes differ between the reserved DWP benefits and the devolved Social Security Scotland benefits, even though many claimants receive a combination of both at the same time.

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