To manage the anticipated demand, Scottish Child Payment opened for applications from 9 November 2020, ahead of its official launch on 15 February 2021.

Anyone applying for Scottish Child Payment in this application window was made aware that they would not receive a decision until after 15 February 2021, and that the first payments would be made to clients from the end of February 2021 onwards.

Throughout the application window, client advisors began processing applications subject to an eligibility check on 15 February.

Outcomes

The outcomes of all applications processed during this time were temporary and subject to change until the benefit officially launched and a final check was carried out to establish the entitlement for each case.

If a client advisor assessed an application and processed it as approved – subject to an automatic eligibility check on 15 February – then the month of decision would reflect the month the client advisor originally processed the application.

This is why there are applications attributed to the months before the official launch of the benefit throughout this publication.

If a client advisor assessed an application as a denial – subject to the final check on 15 February – then the application was flagged but not processed.

Due to the design of Social Security Scotland’s case management system, these applications had to be formally denied on or after the 15 February to avoid denial letters being issued to clients before the final eligibility check had taken place.

This is why there are no processed denials in the months before the official launch of the benefit.

For all applications, the date that applications were processed by client advisors is the date used to produce statistics of processed applications by month.

Payments

After applications are authorised for payment by client advisors, a manager approves the decision, and then a payment is issued.

In some cases, payments will be issued on the same day that payments are authorised by client advisors, however in other cases there can be a delay before payments are issued.

Clients should receive money in their nominated account within four working days after payment is issued.

In this publication, we report on the value of payments that have been issued by the end of each month and not the payments successfully received by the applicants.