The 2018/19 audit of Social Security Scotland

23rd October 2019

Social Security Scotland (the agency) was established in September 2018. It is an executive agency of the Scottish Government and has been set up to deliver the social security benefitsbeing devolved to Scotland from the UK Government under the Scotland Act (2016).

Administrative responsibility and accountability for the benefits - executive competence - is being devolved in stages. By 31 March 2019, the Scottish Government had taken on executive competence for Carer's Allowance and started paying the Best Start Grant (BSG)

Pregnancy and Baby Payment, which replaces the Sure Start Maternity Grant. Executive competence for most remaining devolved benefits is to be transferred by 1 April 2020, at which point the agency will be accountable for approximately £3.5 billion of social security expenditure.

The agency has adopted different delivery arrangements and processes for Carer's Allowance, Carer's Allowance Supplement (CAS) and BSG as set out in Exhibit 1 of the report. The

agency, along with the social security programme, has to work closely with the DWP to manage and plan for the ongoing devolution of the powers. Delivering benefits through agency agreements requires a close relationship and results in operational reliance on the DWP. The interdependence of the devolved and reserved benefits also requires close working and data sharing, for example where eligibility for a devolved benefit requires the claimant to be in receipt of a DWP administered reserved benefit.

The independent auditor has qualified his regularity opinion on the accounts of Social Security Scotland with respect to expenditure on Carer's Allowance. The available estimates of error and fraud levels do not provide enough evidence to determine whether this spending was in line with the relevant legislation. This is a result of the Scottish Government's arrangements for delivering Carer's Allowance, which place reliance on the DWP.

The agency's approach and processes for managing error and fraud are at an earlystage of development. It has established core processes and policies but there is much more to be done. Having clear and effective arrangements will become increasingly important as the scale and complexity of benefits the agency is responsible for grows.

Read the full report at

https://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/uploads/docs/report/2019/s22_190926_social_security.pdf