Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the total cost of mitigating any impact in Scotland of UK Government policy decisions since 2007-08, also broken down by the amount spent in (a) each of the last five years and (b) since April 2025.
The Scottish Government has spent over £1.3 billion in the past 15 years mitigating the impacts of UK Government welfare reforms such as the bedroom tax and benefit cap, introduced since 2010. Of that, over £148 million is being invested in the current financial year (2025-26), and over £681 million has been spent in the last five financial years (2020-21 - 2024-25), funding Discretionary Housing Payments, the Scottish Welfare Fund, money advice services, and Universal Credit Scottish choices.
In addition to the above support, in 2025-26, we forecast that we will spend £458 million on the Scottish Child payment, giving support to the families of over 323,000 children who currently receive it.
Furthermore, the Scottish Government mitigates pressures from UK immigration processes by investing in Scotland’s prevention-based homelessness framework, including rapid rehousing approaches and integration support through New Scots.
Despite limited economic levers, the Scottish Government has a strong record on helping people with the costs of living. We call on the UK Government to follow the Scottish Government’s lead to protect and enhance the social security safety net.
Table 1 below provides a breakdown of spending to mitigate UK Government policy decisions in the last five years, plus the forecast spend for the current financial year (six years in total).
Table 1: breakdown of spending on UK Government welfare mitigation (2020-21 - 2025-26)
2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | Total (£m) | |
DHP bedroom tax budget | £59.70 | £71.30 | £68.10 | £69.70 | £74.84 | £79.70 | £423.34 |
DHP benefit cap budget | £6.155 | £7.75 | £9.45 | £23.35 | |||
DHP “Other” | £18.901 | £10.90 | £16.002 | £7.90 | £7.90 | £10.9010 | £72.50 |
DHP admin funding | £1.20 | £1.20 | £1.703 | £2.20 | £2.20 | £2.20 | £10.70 |
Scottish Welfare Fund | £57.50 | £35.50 | £38.004 | £35.50 | £53.007 | £40.9711 | £260.47 |
Scottish Welfare Fund admin funding | £5.50 | £5.50 | £5.50 | £5.50 | £8.008 | £5.50 | £35.50 |
Money advice services | £1.50 | £1.50 | £0.70 | See note 6 below | £3.70 | ||
Universal Credit Scottish choices | £0.20 | £0.10 | £0.10 | £0.13 | £0.169 | See note 12 below | £0.69 |
Total cost of mitigating UK Government welfare reform | £144.50 | £126.00 | £130.10 | £127.08 | £153.85 | £148.72 | £830.25 |
1.Figure includes additional £8m of Covid support funds.
2.Figure includes additional £2.6m for benefit cap support and £2.5m cost of living support.
3.Figure includes £0.5m additional admin funding paid for benefit cap policy roll-out preparation.
4.Figure includes £2.5m to support delivery of the Scottish Welfare Fund in 2022-23.
5.Prior to 2023-24 benefit cap funding was included in the DHP ”Other” line.
6.From 2018 to late 2022, The Scottish Government allocated funding from its overall welfare and debt advice budget for specific advice relating to UKG welfare reforms. From October 2022, this funding stream was brought together with other previously separate funding streams to support the new, streamlined Money Talk Team service delivered by Citizens Advice Scotland.
7.On 28 November 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice announced a further £17.5m for the Scottish Welfare Fund during winter 2024-25.
8.On 28 November 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice announced a further £2.5m for Scottish Welfare Fund admin funding during winter 2024-25.
9.This is a forecast figure.
10.On 2 September 2025, the Cabinet Secretary for Housing announced an extra £2m for DHPs through the Housing Emergency Action Plan. On 27 October 2025, Cab Sec Housing announced a further £1m.
11.On 8 January 2026, the First Minister announced an additional £5.465m for the Scottish Welfare Fund, originally earmarked in 2025/26 to support the two-child limit mitigation payment in Scotland.
12.No forecast is available at this time.