
More than £130 million has been distributed to thousands of families with disabled children since the launch of a Scottish Government benefit. The latest official figures show the families of over 54,000 children and young people were receiving Child Disability Payment in December last year.
Just over 13,000 of these are from new applications. More than 41,000 children and young people have had their award transferred from Disability Living Allowance for children from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to Child Disability Payment. Social Security Scotland are on course to have transferred the awards of almost everyone still receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children in Scotland by Spring. Child Disability Payment helps cover the extra costs of caring for a disabled or terminally ill child or young person.
Minister for Social Security Ben Macpherson said: “Child Disability Payment helps parents to support their children and assists young people to live their lives to the fullest. Therefore, it is welcome news that so far more than £130 million in Child Disability Payments has been distributed to thousands of families with disabled children, to help cover extra costs.
“New applications are increasing, and Social Security Scotland is working to process these as quickly as they can, while seeking to ensure that right decisions are made first time. We are only being asked to look again at decisions in a very small proportion of cases. The process of transferring people’s awards from the DWP’s DLA for children to our Child Disability Payment is also continuing at pace, and on course to be almost entirely complete in the Spring.”
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