Call for Evidence for the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment

The question is about processing times for Adult Disability Payment which is described in Section 3 of the call for evidence paper.

Background

The time it takes Social Security Scotland to decide about an application for Adult Disability Payment is called the processing time. The processing time can be affected by several factors, including:

• dealing with many applications
• gathering supporting information on behalf of clients
• the type of application (for example, those made under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness)
• applications which may require a consultation.

Some disabled people and stakeholders have expressed concerns about the processing times for applications for Adult Disability Payment. 

Social Security Scotland says it is making improvements towards reducing processing times for applications. The current average processing time for Adult Disability Payment has dropped by almost 40% to 59 working days.
Whilst processing times are coming down, there is little evidence on  whether they are having a different impact on some groups (e.g. seldom-heard groups) and not others.