Why Not Scotland The sourced case for Scottish independence

Pensions, the NHS and benefits

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The case for independence

  • The Scottish Government proposes protecting the NHS in an interim constitution, with a guaranteed right to health care “free at the point of need”.1
  • Scotland already runs its own benefits agency: Social Security Scotland pays benefits such as Adult Disability Payment and Scottish Child Payment.3
  • In the comparator countries, child poverty and pensioner poverty were lower than in the UK (except pensioner poverty in Switzerland).8

How it works now

Health is devolved to the Scottish Parliament. Some benefits, such as Adult Disability Payment and Scottish Child Payment, are paid by Social Security Scotland, while others, including the State Pension and Universal Credit, remain with the UK Government.3

The challenges

  • The Scottish Government has not yet set out its pension plans: its social security paper said they would come “in a later paper”.4
  • The UK Government set out its analysis in “Scotland analysis: work and pensions” (24 April 2014).5

How Scotland would meet them

  • Include the NHS in an interim constitution, giving people a guaranteed right to health care “free at the point of need”.1
  • Its social security paper states: “proposals on pensions will be made available in a later paper in the ‘Building a New Scotland’ series.”4
  • Says all accrued state and public-service pension rights would be honoured and protected, with pensions continuing to be paid on time and in full, and that future Scottish governments would take on responsibility for the pensions system after independence.6

Source: A Fresh Start with Independence (Paper 14); Social security paper (Paper 9)

Still to be settled

Who would pay state pensions that people have already earned?

The Scottish Government says all accrued state and public-service pension rights would be honoured and protected, with pensions continuing to be paid on time and in full, and that future Scottish governments would take on responsibility for the pensions system after independence. It says exactly how pension assets and liabilities would be split is a matter for negotiation after a vote for independence.6 The UK Government's 2014 assessment argued that an independent Scotland would face bigger long-term pension costs, because its population of pensioners is projected to grow faster than the rest of the UK's.7 No dedicated Scottish Government paper on pensions has since been published.

What would change for people receiving benefits during the transition?

This has not been settled, and we have not yet found reliable published analysis. We will add sourced material when it becomes available.

Sources

  1. Scottish Government, A Fresh Start with Independence — Summary (Paper 14), 8 October 2025.
  2. Scotland Act 1998, Schedule 5 (Reserved matters).
  3. Scottish Government, Responsibility for benefits: overview, 27 February 2017.
  4. Scottish Government, Building a New Scotland: Social security in an independent Scotland (Paper 9), 6 December 2023.
  5. UK Government, Scotland analysis (collection of papers), 2013–14.
  6. Scottish Government, Scottish Government position on pensions in an independent Scotland (FOI release), 16 December 2023.
  7. UK Government, Scottish independence referendum: jobs and pensions, 17 July 2014.
  8. Scottish Government, Independence in the modern world. Wealthier, happier, fairer: why not Scotland? — 10 key facts (Paper 1), 14 June 2022.