The Care Leaver Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026: scrutiny report

The draft regulations do not provide local authorities with the power to issue a new determination if they believe their initial determination was incorrect. In cases where a payment has been made in error and the authority seeks to recover it you would reasonably expect them to make a new determination. As drafted, the regulations do not specify this power, and they should be amended to include an explicit right of review.

Regulation 14(1)(3)(b) on exclusion from liability concludes by referring to a “wrong assumption.” For the Care Leaver Payment, determinations will be made based on the actual circumstances at the time, not on assumptions. This terminology is typically used in regulations governing ongoing payments, where eligibility is assumed to continue, rather than for one-off payments. The Scottish Government should consider whether “wrong assumption” is the appropriate term in the context of the Care Leaver Payment.

Recommendation 9: The Scottish Government should consider amendments to regulations in light of the technical issues we have identified.