Thousands of carers boosted by allowance payments of £221

Carers in Perth and Kinross have benefited from £356,000 worth of additional support from September.

A total of 1615 carers in Perth and Kinross received £221 each in their first payments of carers allowance from Social Security Scotland.

More than 77,000 carers in the UK who were getting carer’s allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on April 16 2018 were paid an additional £221 from the Scottish Government – totalling an investment of £17.2 million.

The carer’s allowance supplement was the first payment to be made by Social Security Scotland, which was launched in September 2018.

A further payment was made to carers in the region in December 2018 with the total number of carers still to be determined. Carer’s allowance payments are now set to be paid to carers in the region in June 2019 and December 2019.

Shirley-Anne Somerville, social security secretary, said:“These payments marked a momentous moment – one where the most significant new public service since devolution became real.

“With this one payment alone, this new service helped 77,620 people including 1615 in Perth and Kinross. “This is just the start. “Once fully operational, Social Security Scotland will administer 14 benefits, supporting 1.4 million people and providing approximately £3.5 billion in payments every year.”

David Wallace, Social Security Scotland’s chief executive, said:“Our priority is to make sure that people get the right amount of money paid to them, into the right place and at the right time.

“We were happy to have done this successfully for this first round of payments.”