Translation and interpretation services available for benefits information

Making sure people can access and understand all of the information relating to our benefits is one of our key principles.

When designing our service with input from the people who use it, we wanted to ensure that our processes and ways of communicating could be adapted to meet a wide range of needs of our clients.

One of the main areas we identified to help our clients was the need to provide translated versions of our material and interpreter services for people who do not use English as a first language.

Information on benefits is proactively translated into 12 languages used in communities across Scotland, including Urdu, Polish and Gaelic. Important communications have also been translated into Ukrainian and Russian to help refugees and displaced people access benefits. Translated information on all of our benefits can be accessed via the stakeholder resources section of our website.

To show our commitment to making it easy for people to understand what they need to do to access our benefits, we joined the Happy to Translate scheme in 2020. Happy to Translate is a national scheme that helps organisations reach clients who may not have English as a first language or who speak limited English.

We display the Happy to Translate logo on our website and communications materials to help people recognise at-a-glance that our materials are available for translating. This helps ensure our information reaches as many people as possible across Scotland.

We were recognised as Member of the Year at the Happy to Translate Awards 2021. The award recognised our commitment to meeting our clients’ varied communications needs by making interpreter-assisted calls available to people who phone our helpline and proactively translating our information on benefits.

People can access translated information on all of our benefits via the stakeholder resources section on our website.

Our Information on benefits page provides details on how to access interpreter services, as well as accessing our material in alternative languages and formats.