Parents urged not to miss out on new Scottish Child Payment

The Scottish Child Payment will be available to children under six in eligible families

Parents are being urged to apply for a new child benefit or face missing out on payments.

The Scottish government said it had received 77,000 applications so far, but 173,000 children are estimated to be eligible.

The £10-a-week Scottish Child Payment is available for each child under six in qualifying families.

However, families who fail to apply by 15 February will miss out on some of their entitlement.

The Scottish government said the payment was part of their efforts to tackle child poverty.

Money will be given out monthly, beginning in late February once eligibility has been assessed and decisions made. Payments for those who have already applied will be backdated from 15 February. People who apply after that will have their payment calculated from the day their application is submitted.

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The Scottish government said 77,000 applications for the new Scottish Child Payment had been received by 7 February.

If all 77,000 applications received so far are approved, it would account for less than 45% of the 173,000 children now estimated to be eligible by the Scottish Fiscal Commission.

The total number of eligible families is estimated to be about 138,000.

The Scottish Greens believed the payment would not be enough for families recovering from the pandemic.

The party's Alison Johnstone claimed Scotland was "already on track" to miss child poverty targets before coronavirus.

She added: "The Scottish Government needs to show more ambition to support the household incomes of those in most need, whether that means rent controls, expanding free public transport and school meals, investing to cut energy bills or providing the uplift on the Scottish Child Payment that anti-poverty charities have called for."

'I'd like to ask families for their patience'

The payment is being made through Social Security Scotland, which was set up as part of the devolution of more powers to Scotland.

Other benefits devolved from Westminster to Holyrood included Personal Independence Payments, Carer's Allowance and Attendance Allowance.

Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the Scottish government was "proactively promoting" the payment and had written to people on the Universal Credit and HMRC tax credit databases who may be eligible, describing the response as "fantastic".

She said: "We've had a great response and there is a very large number of applications.

"It will take time to work through these applications and I'd like to ask families for their patience while we work as quickly as we can to process these."

Ms Somerville added that the payment, announced in June 2019, was the most "ambitious anti-poverty measure" currently being undertaken in the UK.

The new payment is additional to the UK government's child benefit.