Between March and May 2019, the Scottish Government asked people for their views on whether the way that we were planning to pay Disability Assistance would meet the needs of the children and adults it was intended to help. We sought the views of people with lived experience of social security and of applying for disability benefits. We asked 64 questions in the consultation which was in four parts covering: Disability Assistance in Scotland; Disability Assistance for Children and Young People; Disability Assistance for Working Age People; Disability Assistance for Older People.
We received 262 replies to the consultation: 74 responses came from organisations, and 188 came from individuals. Most people agreed with the way the Scottish Government said Disability Assistance would work in Scotland. Many people told us about the same issues when sharing their views about disability assistance:
Almost everyone who replied liked the idea of having different ways of applying for Disability Assistance (online/phone/paper). Most people thought that we should use the same rules as the Department for Work and Pensions to decide who (living in Scotland) could apply for benefits. Many people agreed that Social Security Scotland should make decisions based on each person's situation, looking at how a disability or health condition affects that person’s daily life. Almost everyone thought we should increase the age limit to age 18 for Disability Assistance for Children and Young People. Many people felt that using a points-based system to decide if someone can get a benefit does not work for people with conditions that change a lot.
On 28 October 2019 the Scottish Government published an analysis of responses to the consultation and the report is available here:
http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781839602689. The analysis helped inform the development of Disability Assistance, including Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment.
The Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Scotland) Regulations 2022 can be found here:
The Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Scotland) Regulations 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).
The Disability Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) Regulations 2021 can be found here:
This report presents an analysis of written responses to the consultation on Disability Assistance in Scotland.
The consultation ran from the 5 March 2019 until the 28 May 2019. The consultation was in four parts, covering:
The Scottish Government has published both its analysis and response to the consultation and will use the analysis to help inform the development of Disability Assistance.
We have also outlined our model client experience - this sets out our high level vision for Disability Assistance and how it differs from the current UK social security system.
View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.
This consultation asks questions on whether the policy intent set out in the Scottish approach to Disability Assistance will meet the needs of the children and adults it is intended to help. We would like to gather views to ensure we have identified the best possible approach to delivering this assistance before we draft the benefit regulations.
Building on our work with Experience Panels we are now keen to gather further views of people with a working knowledge of social security, including disability benefits, and experience of applying for disability benefits. The Scottish Commissionon Social Security (SCoSS) has been established and will scrutinise the Disability Assistance regulations which will be drafted in accordance with feedback from this consultation.
View full consultation paper on gov.scot.
View the Easy Read paper on gov.scot.
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