Charis Chittick, right, giving evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee (Image: UK Parliament)
People on Universal Credit and Pension Credit may want to look out for a boost to their pay packet soon. An additional amount that goes out to certain claimants is increasing.
Policy experts recently spoke to the Work and Pensions Committee about efforts to reduce child poverty, and how DWP support could be expanded to better support low-income families. One topic that came up was the Scottish Child Payment, an extra amount that goes out to people on certain benefits with children under the age of 16.
You can currently get £28.20 a week for each child under the age of 16 in your household through the scheme, worth around £1,460 a year per child. But this rate is increasing soon for some claimants.
Payment rate increase confirmed
Charis Chittick, head of policy, strategy and communications for One Parent Families Scotland, told the committee: “Next year we are trialling an additional payment for families with a baby under one, to reflect the increased cost and risk of poverty in that first year. For those families, the payment will go up to £40 from the next financial year, that is from 2027.”
Figures from Social Security Scotland showed that more than 322,000 children were benefiting from the payment as of September 2025. The extra cash could be worth around £25,000 by a child’s 16th birthday.
Ms Chittick told the MPs that the Scottish Child Payment is a “universal payment” in the sense that anyone who claims a qualifying benefit with a child under 16 can get the support, not just those who are in the greatest need.
Who qualifies for the Scottish Child Payment?
You may qualify for the payment if you or your partner get one of the following benefits:
- Universal Credit
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA).
You may also be able to claim the support if you alone are named on one of these benefits:
- Pension Credit
- Income Support
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
‘Significant difference’
Ms Chittick told the committee the policy has made a big difference for families in Scotland. She said: “Having measures like the Scottish Child Payment has made a significant difference for families.
“In the most recent child poverty stats, we see that in Scotland we have one in five children in poverty, compared with one in four across the UK. That shows the difference that having those different policy choices can make.”
The payment was brought in just over five years ago in February 2021, when it paid just £10 a week per child. Ms Chittick said: “Families told us at that point that it paid for things such as swimming lessons that they could not otherwise afford.
“Now families are telling us that they could not live without it. They are having to use it to pay for their food shop because the cost of living has gone up so exponentially, yet we have not seen Universal Credit rise alongside it to help guarantee covering the essentials.”
Extra support for parents
The UK Government has brought in a policy so that the standard allowance for Universal Credit will be uprated by above inflation each April.
For the April 2026 increase, the standard allowance rates went up in line with the CPI figure for inflation plus an extra 2.3 per cent. Also from April, the central UK Government scrapped the two-child cap on Universal Credit, so you can claim additional amounts through the benefit for more than two children.
People across the UK can also claim Child Benefit, which pays £27.05 a week for your eldest or only child and £17.90 for each additional child in your care. Anyone can claim this support, although you have to pay it back once either you or your partner’s individual income moves above £60,000 a year, and you have to pay all it back once your individual income reaches £80,000.