The Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025: scrutiny report

8.1 Determination without application to award backdated support

When a carer first applies for Carer Support, they can ask for their entitlement to be backdated for up to 13 weeks. If they do not ask on the application form, they can ask Social Security Scotland later once an award is in place. Currently there is no time limit to request the 13-week backdating. These draft regulations introduce a time limit of 13 weeks from the date of the award. Asking later than that is still allowed but depends on the carer satisfying Social Security Scotland that they have good reason for not asking sooner.

Such tests are difficult for people to navigate. Moreover, carers are time poor so almost by default have a good reason for not acting quickly to sort out a benefit issue. In practice, there may not be many carers affected, but to avoid people missing out on entitlement, the process should be made as straightforward as possible and the bar for accepting a carer has good reason should be low.

Recommendation 12: To ensure that carers can effectively navigate the process, Social Security Scotland should make it simple for them to request backdating of their award. This should include giving clear guidance and being proactive in prompting about the importance of giving a reason when the request is late.

8.2 Revocation of provisions for the initial period of application

Draft regulation 6(3) revokes previous provisions setting out the dates on which Carer Support Payment became available for applications in different local authorities in Scotland as part of the phased roll out. This provision is no longer required now the benefit is available across Scotland. Removing provisions that are no longer needed is good legislative housekeeping and we welcome this approach.

By a savings provision, a special backdating rule continues to apply for student carers and others who were not eligible for Carer’s Allowance and had to wait until Carer Support Payment with its more generous provisions was rolled out in their area. We have been made aware by stakeholders that due to the complexities of this scenario student carers backdating under this special rule were at risk of receiving conflicting and incorrect information from Social Security Scotland. Ideally, rules would be simple, but in practice some complexity cannot be avoided. This does present challenges for Social Security Scotland to make sure staff are well equipped to give information on situations they encounter less often such as the less common backdating rules.

Recommendation 13: To ensure clear and accurate information is given to carers affected by various backdating rules, Social Security Scotland should provide more training and guidance for staff on provisions that are less commonly encountered.