Scottish Child Payment rises to £28.20 a week from April 2026
Scottish Child Payment increased from £27.15 to £28.20 a week per eligible child from April 2026. The payment remains available for every qualifying child under 16 in Scotland, with no two-child limit.
What changed
The Scottish Child Payment rate rose from £27.15 to £28.20 per qualifying child per week from April 2026. The payment continues to be made every four weeks. For a family with three eligible children, this is an uplift of £12.60 every four-week cycle — £163.80 over a full year.
Eligibility rules are unchanged: the Scottish Child Payment is paid to families resident in Scotland who have a child under 16 and are receiving a qualifying means-tested benefit (Universal Credit, Pension Credit, income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support, Child Tax Credit, or Working Tax Credit). There is no two-child limit on the Scottish Child Payment — it is paid for every eligible child.
Who it affects
Social Security Scotland reports more than 322,000 children receiving the Scottish Child Payment in recent statistics. The 2026/27 rate puts the annual per-child value at £1,466.40. A three-child household receiving the payment is now around £4,399 a year better off than an equivalent household elsewhere in the UK.
The uplift compounds with the 2025 removal of the bedroom tax by Scottish mitigation funding and the continued availability of the Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods — together the core package for low-income Scottish families with young children.
When it takes effect
The new rate applies from the first four-week payment cycle on or after 7 April 2026. Existing claimants do not need to do anything; the uplift is applied automatically.
What to do
- If you live in Scotland and have a child under 16 but have not claimed the Scottish Child Payment, apply via mygov.scot. The claim takes around 20 minutes; awards start from the date of application (not the date of decision), so don't wait.
- Check whether you also qualify for the Best Start Grant one-off payments (Pregnancy and Baby Payment, Early Learning Payment, School Age Payment) — these are separate from the Scottish Child Payment and have their own application.
- Run our triage tool with "Scotland" selected to see the full ranked list of Scottish Government and reserved-UK entitlements that may apply to your household.
Primary sources
- Scottish Child Payment — 5 year anniversary — Scottish Government
- Scottish Child Payment — mygov.scot — Social Security Scotland
Affected entitlements
See what you qualify for today
Policy news changes eligibility lines. Run the triage to see the ranked list of benefits that apply to your household under the current rules.