diff --git a/src/core/cgroup.c b/src/core/cgroup.c
index b7718e19667..abcd057d6a3 100644
--- a/src/core/cgroup.c
+++ b/src/core/cgroup.c
@@ -617,15 +617,27 @@ static void cgroup_xattr_apply(Unit *u) {
         if (!MANAGER_IS_SYSTEM(u->manager))
                 return;
 
-        if (sd_id128_is_null(u->invocation_id))
-                return;
+        if (!sd_id128_is_null(u->invocation_id)) {
+                r = cg_set_xattr(SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER, u->cgroup_path,
+                                 "trusted.invocation_id",
+                                 sd_id128_to_string(u->invocation_id, ids), 32,
+                                 0);
+                if (r < 0)
+                        log_unit_debug_errno(u, r, "Failed to set invocation ID on control group %s, ignoring: %m", u->cgroup_path);
+        }
 
-        r = cg_set_xattr(SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER, u->cgroup_path,
-                         "trusted.invocation_id",
-                         sd_id128_to_string(u->invocation_id, ids), 32,
-                         0);
-        if (r < 0)
-                log_unit_debug_errno(u, r, "Failed to set invocation ID on control group %s, ignoring: %m", u->cgroup_path);
+        if (unit_cgroup_delegate(u)) {
+                r = cg_set_xattr(SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER, u->cgroup_path,
+                                 "trusted.delegate",
+                                 "1", 1,
+                                 0);
+                if (r < 0)
+                        log_unit_debug_errno(u, r, "Failed to set delegate flag on control group %s, ignoring: %m", u->cgroup_path);
+        } else {
+                r = cg_remove_xattr(SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER, u->cgroup_path, "trusted.delegate");
+                if (r != -ENODATA)
+                        log_unit_debug_errno(u, r, "Failed to remove delegate flag on control group %s, ignoring: %m", u->cgroup_path);
+        }
 }
 
 static int lookup_block_device(const char *p, dev_t *ret) {