Disability and carer benefit transfer completed

30 Dec 2025 10:16 AM

Carers and disabled people have had their benefit awards safely and securely transferred to Social Security Scotland from the Department for Work and Pensions after a multi-year project.  

More than 700,000 benefit awards have been successfully moved over to the Scottish system, meaning every disabled person and carer in the country who received Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Attendance Allowance or Carer's Allowance will now receive their benefits from Social Security Scotland.

The case transfer process was designed so people did not need to reapply for their benefits or experience any break in the payments they rely on for vital support.

Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, said: 

"Moving more than 700,000 benefits safely and securely from the DWP to Social Security Scotland was a huge undertaking that was essential to ensure carers and disabled people who need financial support are treated with the dignity, fairness and respect they deserve. We have also met our commitment to complete case transfer on time and on budget by the end of 2025.

“When developing our case transfer process, people told us about the stress and anxiety caused by DWP transitions where they had to apply for benefits again with no guarantee they would continue to be eligible. We’ve taken a different approach, transferring people’s benefit awards without requiring an application and ensuring no break in entitlement to protect people’s critical payments.

“We set out to deliver a fairer social security system starting from a position of trust, and the majority of clients have told us they were treated with kindness by staff during the process.”

Background 

Social Security Scotland is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government delivering devolved benefits and those that are unique such as Scottish Child Payment. 

Case transfer for carers, child disability and working age disability benefits have completed, with all recipients now receiving payments from Social Security Scotland.  

By the end of December 2025, more than 99% of pensioners who received Attendance Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions will have been moved over to Social Security Scotland. The remaining 28 complex cases will move from Attendance Allowance to Pension Age Disability Payment within a few weeks.

In the Social Security Scotland Client Satisfaction Survey 2024-2025, most respondents (84%) who had interacted with Social Security Scotland staff agreed their overall experience with staff was ‘very good’ or ‘good’, and that staff made them feel comfortable (86%), listened to (87%) and treated with kindness (91%). 

Social security case transfer: policy position paper - gov.scot included reflections from people who had lived experience of the UK Government benefits system which informed the design of the case transfer process

More information on case transfer is available at mygov.scot/browse/benefits/disability-benefits/benefit-transfer 

For more information on carer and disability benefits visit mygov.scot/benefits or call Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222.