'Dismantling the Culture of Suspicion': Successes, Shifts and Challenges for Scotland's Social Security System

In this working paper, we set out to explore the successes and challenges of Scotland’s social security system since its introduction in 2018. Using longitudinal qualitative data from the Changing Realities project, we have identified key thematic areas which necessitate the attention of policymakers and social policy scholars working on areas such as welfare reform, devolution, disability justice, and stigma.

The paper first explores the extent to which Social Security Scotland is meeting its Charter, which commits the agency to being accessible, fair, transparent and subject to continuous improvement. Changing Realities participants in Scotland reached a general consensus that, since devolution, the social security system has treated claimants with more dignity and respect than that which they experienced from the Department for Work and Pensions. The system is more accessible and just, and, in turn, participants were positive regarding their experiences and interactions.

We then look to the take up of social security across Scotland, pinpointing that although uptake has been impressive across a range of benefit payments – particularly Scottish Child Payment – there are still families missing out on access to vital support. Moreover, we explore how devolution has led to often-fragmented systems of support, which can create challenges for low-income parents and carers when attempting to navigate this. This section makes recommendations around automation and better joined-up systems. The final section explores social security expenditure and expansion, calling for a greater investment in the system. Participants of the Changing Realities project have consistently raised points around the adequacy of the benefit payments they are receiving, noting that with the heightened cost of living and raising a family, financial support does not go far enough. This section also draws on comparative analysis of Social Security Scotland and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), noting that despite differences in approach and conditionalities – payments rates and assessment criteria are often very similar. It also looks at renewed political discourse around 1 ‘working people’, which fails to capture all the different types of hidden labour taking place in the home, as well as excluding those who cannot work for reasons such as health or immigration status.

Changing Realities – a participatory research project which centres the lived experience of parents and carers in policymaking – has been engaging with the Scottish Government and the UK Government to amplify the voices of families who interact with and depend on the social security system in different ways. This paper includes qualitative data – participant speeches – from a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice in January 2026. For more details of the project and the work we have been doing in Scotland, see the methods note at the end of the paper.