A SCOTTISH family benefit has been hailed the “most ambitious child poverty reduction measure in the UK”.

The Scottish Child Payment saw 184,000 children and young people get £25 per week by the end of 2022.

The figures include 78,000 youngsters who have received the benefit since the payment was extended to include children aged between six and 16 in November.

Now social justice secretary Shona Robison has celebrated £155 million being paid out to tackle child poverty.

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It comes after the Scottish Child Payment was announced in the summer of 2019, with the first payments being made in February 2021.

Since then it has risen from £10 per week per child to £25 per week per child.

Ms Robison said: “These figures demonstrate our commitment to tackling child poverty and the significant financial support we have made available to meet that aim.

“This is just a snapshot of all the work being done since the Scottish Child Payment was extended and increased until the end of 2022.

"We’ve since processed tens of thousands more applications.

“This represents remarkable progress in the delivery of the most ambitious child poverty reduction measure in the UK.

“That increased payment of £1300 per child per year is now benefiting families across Scotland.

“We want to make sure that everyone gets the help available to them.

“Parents or carers who are on Universal Credit, tax credits or other benefits and who have children under 16 should check through Social Security Scotland if they are eligible.”

 

 

Social Security Scotland had provided decisions to just more than half the people who applied on the extension of the payment by the end of 2022.

Decisions for the majority of people who applied or added additional children to their award between November 14 and December 31 have now been issued and this will be reported on in the next round of statistics.

Ahead of extending the Scottish Child Payment to under-16s, local authorities also made more than 1.1 million Bridging Payments across 2021 and 2022 to the families of school age children worth a total of £169.3m.