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A care leaver payment is available from 1 April 2026 from the local authority for young people moving on from care. It is a one-off payment of £2,000.

You are eligible if you were looked after by the local authority on or after your 16th birthday, and you stopped being looked after on or after 1 April 2026. It is also available for some young people who were in continuing care.

You do not have to make a claim for the care leaver payment. The local authority that last looked after you should identify that you are entitled and notify you about how the payment will be made.

There’s more information about this at cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/benefits-scotland/scottish-benefits/children-young-people/care-leaver-payment.

If you think a decision about your Scottish child payment, Best Start grant or funeral support payment is wrong, you can ask Social Security Scotland (SSS) to look at it again. This process is known as a ‘redetermination’. The time limit is usually 31 days from the decision being notified to you. If you are still not happy when you get the further decision, you can appeal to the independent First-tier Tribunal. If it was not possible to ask SSS to redetermine the decision within 31 days, you can ask for a late redetermination (within one year), explaining why it is late.

You can ask SSS for a review if you don’t agree with a decision about Best Start foods, but there is no right of appeal.

You can ask for a review of a budgeting loan decision within 28 days of the day the decision was issued to you (or sometimes later, if you have special reasons or if there is a mistake in the decision about the law or the facts of your case).

You can ask for a review of a Scottish Welfare Fund decision within 20 days (or later if you have good reasons for asking for this late). If you are still not happy, you can ask for the decision to be looked at again by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (spso.org.uk).

This chapter outlines the support available for people studying in Scotland who are eligible for student support under the Scottish system. It lists the type of support available, but it does not describe the rules for qualifying for that support in any detail – eg, residence rules. For where to find information on claiming student support and how much you may get, see Appendix 2. See Chapter 12 for how student support affects universal credit, Chapter 13 for how it affects other means-tested benefits, and Chapter 14 for how it affects health benefits.

To qualify for new-style employment and support allowance (ESA), you must meet all the following conditions.1

You have limited capability for work (LCW – see here).

• You are 16 or over and under pension age.
• You have paid sufficient national insurance (NI) contributions. You must have paid class 1 contributions on earnings of at least the lower earnings limit in 26 weeks, which need not be consecutive, usually in one of the two complete tax years (6 April to 5 April) before the start of the benefit year (which runs from the first Sunday in January) in which you claim. You also must have paid or been credited with class 1 contributions on earnings of 50 times the lower earnings limit in these years. For example, you qualify if you claim ESA in 2026 and you paid contributions on earnings of £6,150 in each of the tax years April 2023 to April 2024 and April 2024 to April 2025, earning in one of the years £123 a week or more, for at least 26 weeks. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for details.
• You are in Great Britain (although some absences are allowed, and new-style ESA can be paid in other countries in limited circumstances – see CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for more details).
• You are not entitled to statutory sick pay or new-style jobseeker’s allowance.
• You are not working, although some ‘permitted work’ is allowed. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for more details.

New-style ESA is not means tested. To qualify, you must meet the conditions above. You can also claim it in order to get NI credits for LCW.

There are no special rules for students, so you can claim new-style ESA whether you study full time or part time, including if you are taking time out from your course because of ill health (see here).

New-style employment and support allowance (ESA) is usually payable after seven ‘waiting days’. You are paid a limited amount of new-style ESA during an initial ‘assessment phase’. In most cases, this lasts 13 weeks. After this, you may then be paid more in the ‘main phase’ (see below).

New-style ESA is worked out as follows.

In the assessment phase, you get a basic allowance of new-style ESA, based on your age. Once you have been assessed, you move into the main phase (usually from 13 weeks after your award started).

In the main phase, if you are in the support group, you get a support component of £50.35 a week. If you are in the work-related activity group and you claimed before 3 April 2017, you get a work-related activity component of £37.95 a week. If you claimed on or after 3 April 2017, no work-related activity component can be added. The component, if applicable, is added to the basic allowance.

You may get a reduced amount of new-style ESA if you have certain pension payments. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for details.

New-style ESA is paid for up to a year if you are in the work-related activity group, or indefinitely if you are in the support group.

Check how to claim new-style employment and support allowance (ESA) at gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/how-to-claim.

You claim new-style ESA for yourself only.

You are usually interviewed after you claim. You must provide medical certificates from your GP (or similar) until you are assessed under the work capability assessment.

Claims for new-style ESA can be backdated for up to three months if you met the conditions during that time (you don’t need a reason for a late claim).

If you think a decision about your new-style employment and support allowance is wrong, you can ask the DWP to look at it again. This process is known as a ‘mandatory reconsideration’. Provided you ask within the time limit (usually one month), the DWP notifies you of the decision in a ‘mandatory reconsideration notice’. If you are still not happy when you get this notice, you can appeal to the independent First-tier Tribunal. If it was not possible to ask the DWP to reconsider the decision within a month, you can ask for a late revision (within 13 months), explaining why it is late. You can also ask the DWP to look at a decision again at any time if certain grounds are met – eg, if there has been an official error.

You cannot get new-style employment and support allowance (ESA) if you are getting statutory sick pay (SSP) from an employer.1 SSP runs out after 28 weeks, after which you can claim new-style ESA.

You can claim new-style ESA and have this topped up by universal credit. You cannot get new-style ESA if you are getting new-style jobseeker’s allowance.2

New-style ESA is taken into account when calculating whether the benefit cap applies, unless you or your partner get a support component in your new-style ESA. If this is the case, you are exempt from the benefit cap (see here and here).

• Everyone in Scotland is entitled to free NHS eye and dental checks and free prescriptions.
• Everyone under 26 can get free NHS dental treatment.
• Full-time students under 19 can get free vouchers for glasses.
• Other students can get help if they have a low income or in certain other circumstances.

There are charges for some NHS treatments and services including:

• glasses and contact lenses;
• dental treatment.

There are also often costs incurred in getting to hospital. You may be exempt from these charges or be able to claim help with them on low income grounds.1

There is no charge for NHS eye and dental checks, or for prescriptions. Note: if you have an English prescription form there may be a charge, but there are exemptions.2