The Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2025: scrutiny report
The Scottish Commission on Social Security's scrutiny report on the Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2025
Contents
- Document Cover
- Summary of recommendations and observations
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The purpose of uprating and distinct policy decisions
- 3. Up-rating Scottish social security for 2025/26
- 4. Future uprating policy
- 5. Earnings thresholds
- 6. Approach to scrutiny
- Annex A: About the Scottish Commission on Social Security
- Annex B: Scrutiny timeline
5. Earnings thresholds
In general terms, an earnings threshold for a social security payment is an amount of income above which a person’s eligibility for that social security payment is affected. The only Scottish social security payment currently with an earnings threshold is Carer Support Payment (CSP).
Although the Scottish Government is required to up-rate the amounts of social security payments in line with increased prices, there is no requirement to up-rate earnings thresholds. There is also no standard way of increasing earnings thresholds year on year.
The UK Government 2024 Autumn Budget provided for an increase in the earnings threshold for Carer’s Allowance from £151 per week in 2024-25 to £196 per week in 2025-26. The Scottish Government 2025-26 budget commits to—
“matching the UK Government by raising the earnings threshold for Carer Support Payment and Carer’s Allowance to £196, which means carers can earn an extra £45 a week whilst receiving these benefits”1Scottish Government, ‘Scottish Budget: 2025-26’, p.4..
In our CSP scrutiny report2https://socialsecuritycommission.scot/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Carer-Support-Payment-scrutiny-report.pdf, SCoSS noted the complexity of CSP rules about earnings and their administration, including the risk of overpayments (also the subject of a DWP review).3https://www.gov.uk/government/news/next-steps-on-addressing-carers-allowance-overpayments-announced Furthermore, in last year’s uprating scrutiny report we recommended (and the Government accepted) that measures for uprating earnings thresholds following case transfer should be considered.4Recommendation 2. To inform policy following the completion of case transfer, the Scottish Government should consider different measures for up-rating earnings thresholds and consider the merits of making annual up-rating of earnings thresholds a requirement.
Recommendation Three: SCoSS welcomes the decision to retain parity with the Department for Work and Pensions’ increase in earnings thresholds for carer benefits for this year. In future years, we would urge the Scottish Government to adopt a more predictable approach to annual up-rating of earning thresholds to provide greater certainty to carers.