£10 child benefit for poor households in Scotland

The Scottish Government is introducing a new benefit that will provide poorer families with £10 a week for every child under 16.

It will be introduced for under sixes by early 2021 and will be delivered to all remaining eligible families with children under 16 by the end of 2022, with no cap on the number of children in families.

When delivered in full, 410,000 children could be eligible for the income supplement – over a third of all children. It is estimated it will lift 30,000 children out of relative poverty by 2023/24.

For a family with two children under the age of 16 this new payment would mean additional support of more than £1,000 a year.

The payment will be administered by Social Security Scotland alongside the existing programme of devolved social security benefits.