Adult disability payment rolled out Scotland-wide
Adult disability payment, the most complex benefit to be delivered by the Scottish Government, opens for new applications across the whole of Scotland from today.
The national rollout of the benefit to replace the UK-wide personal independence payment follows pilots in 13 local authority areas, which began in March.
Adult disability payment provides financial support to people aged between 16 and state pension age who are disabled, have a long-term health condition or have a terminal illness.
People already receiving personal independence payment and disability living allowance do not need to apply: existing awards will transfer automatically from the DWP to Social Security Scotland. Cases will transfer in stages starting from this summer, but will not complete until the end of 2025.
In line with the principle of treating people with dignity, fairness and respect, the way entitlement decisions will be made will be very different from personal independence payment. Assessments will start from a position of trusting the applicant, and Social Security Scotland will only need to collect one piece of formal supporting information when making a decision. There will be no routine face-to-face assessments or use of private sector or third parties, though where a decision cannot be made on the available information, people may be invited to a consultation, which can be held virtually or in person.
An advocacy service will be available to support applicants, and applications can be made online, by post, over the phone or face-to-face. The application form will include comprehensive guidance, using images and examples to help people understand what is needed, and the online form will filter out questions an applicant doesn't need to answer, based on their previous responses.
Minister for Social Security Ben Macpherson commented: "The national launch of adult disability payment is a significant milestone in the development of our new social security system, that will treat everyone with dignity, fairness and respect. This is the twelfth and most complex devolved benefit to be introduced and, once all the awards have transferred from the DWP, this new payment will be supporting more than 300,000 people."
He added: "In creating our new system, we have worked extensively and collaboratively with people who will use this service. Their input, and their direct experience of the DWP system, has significantly informed our policy development and resulted in the number of improvements that we are making to the way in which we are delivering our new service. The Scottish Government is focused on providing a positive and compassionate experience for people applying for and receiving our adult disability payment."