The Scottish Parliament has approved emergency legislation to help businesses, public services and people through the ongoing pandemic.

This includes some changes to the way that they will administer five of our benefits. Including Pregnancy and Baby Payment, Early Learning Payment, School Age Payment, Young Carer Grant and Funeral Support Payment

Full details can be found at the Social Security Scotland website.

 

Current awards of PIP will be extended if they are due to end. read more below:

PIP EXTENTIONS

The AIB have stopped sale and evictions in bankruptcy proceedings:

BANKRUPTCY

Eviction hearings are suspended till May 28th

Help with:

ENERGY COSTS

EVICTIONS

UNDERSTANDING UNIVERSAL CREDIT

HELP FOR ROUGH SLEEPERS


Claiming New Style ESA

The new procedure will now be:

Client should call Universal Credit Helpline 0800 328 5644, go through options for ‘New Style ESA’.

The advisor at DWP will then complete the application on the telephone with the client and email this to Job Centre Plus on client’s behalf.

Client will then receive a call from their Job Centre Plus office, and the application and ID will be verified over the telephone with the client.

No Job Centre Plus appointments will be given and everything will be done remotely.

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Newly Self-employed Hardship Fund

The purpose of this fund is to provide hardship relief to newly self-employed individuals who have not been able to access support through other schemes or have exhausted all other avenues for business support. To be eligible you must meet all of the following criteria on the APPLICATION FORM. If you receive the grant you can continue to work or take on other employment including voluntary work.