Chamber and committees

The independent review was announced by Shirley-Anne Somerville when she was Cabinet Secretary for Social Security, in recognition that, as we deliver the adult disability payment we want feedback and insight into how stakeholders believe the new system is performing. The review will also think ahead, to beyond the period of case transfer, when everyone in receipt of a disability benefit is in the Scottish social security system. It will consider what we can and should change, whether that is eligibility criteria or other considerations.

Of course, we are in not just a hybrid system with the UK Government, but a system in which we have two processes running in tandem. When we launch the adult disability payment, we will be both accepting new applications for ADP and simultaneously transferring into our system 300,000 individuals who are on PIP.

The review is important—it is important that we have feedback on how people are experiencing the system. We plan to establish a review group, the members of which will be drawn from outside the Scottish Government, with the intention that the group will secure input from people with experience of applying for and receiving ADP. I appreciate that there will be a lot of interest in the review and I am determined that as many people as possible will have the opportunity to contribute to it. The review will be completely independent, so it would be wrong for me to pre-empt any recommendations. Planning and scoping work is already under way on the first stage of the review and I will provide a further update to the committee and the Parliament as soon as possible.

As I laid out in my letter to the committee on 17 December, the reason why we want the review to commence with consideration of the mobility criteria is that we are mindful of and respectful of the significant amount of evidence that the committee has received and the discussion that there has been about the mobility criteria. We want to make sure that we get the process of reviewing those considerations under way as quickly as we can.

We are confident, given that the process for case transfer for child disability payment is operating well. The adult disability payment is a significant undertaking. It is estimated that initially we will have around 7,000 applications for transfer per month. We will then look to ramp that up as we get the system under way and gain more experience and confidence with the processes, and as we ensure that everything is running properly for the safe and secure transfer. We continue to be determined to deliver the case transfer for all benefits by 2025—that is our aspiration—and particularly, of course, for adult disability payment.

Good morning. Welcome to the committee, convener, and congratulations on your new role.

Thank you for inviting me to give evidence on these important regulations, which, if passed, will introduce the adult disability payment in Scotland. The adult disability payment will be the 12th benefit to be administered by Social Security Scotland and it is the biggest and most complex undertaking for the organisation to date.

I strongly believe that the regulations deliver on the principles of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 and the Scottish social security charter. That is in large part due to the extensive input of a range of organisations and individual disabled people across the country and I take this opportunity to thank all those whose contributions have helped to shape the adult disability payment. I am also immensely grateful to the members of the Scottish Commission on Social Security, who have given generously of their time and engaged openly with me and officials. SCOSS has made a number of insightful recommendations on the regulations, almost all of which the Government has accepted.

The regulations enable the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland to commence the delivery of the adult disability payment for new applicants from 21 March, initially in Perthshire and Kinross, Dundee and the Western Isles. We will then introduce the adult disability payment across two further pilot phases, before rolling it out nationally on 29 August.

Critically, the passage of the regulations will enable us to take a very different approach to delivering disability assistance, developed around our principles of dignity, fairness and respect. We will put an end to the stress and anxiety of private sector assessments. There will be no undignified physical and mental examinations. We will end the stressful cycle of unnecessary re-assessments and the adversarial approach of the Department for Work and Pensions. In contrast, we are introducing a system that is rooted in trust and supported by the input of suitably qualified in-house health and social care practitioners. We are funding an independent advocacy service that will support people to access social security throughout their journey.

Only one piece of information will be sought from a formal source to support the general care and mobility needs in a person’s application. The onus of collecting that information will be on Social Security Scotland. Equal weight will be given to all sources of information, including from the people who know a client best: their friends, family and informal support network. Applications from people with a terminal illness will be fast tracked so that they can access the support that they need and are entitled to as quickly as possible.

Overall, the experience of applying for and receiving the adult disability payment will be fundamentally different from the current DWP experience. If the regulations are not passed, people will not be able to benefit from the significant improvements that we intend to make. People would be left on the personal independence payment for longer and potentially subjected to the indignity and anxiety of private sector assessments. It is crucial that the Parliament agrees to the regulations.

We intend to begin the case transfer of PIP awards to the adult disability payment when it launches nationally in August. The case transfer of approximately 300,000 disability benefit awards from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland is an unprecedented exercise both in scale and complexity. We have, therefore, consistently prioritised the safe and secure delivery of the adult disability payment. That approach has been supported by SCOSS, the Disability and Carers Benefits Expert Advisory Group, DACBEAG, and by many responses to our public consultations on disability assistance and the adult disability payment.

We have focused on making changes that will have the greatest positive impact on how people experience accessing support, while not risking the safe and secure delivery of that support. That is why the rules for the adult disability payment will be broadly the same as those for PIP during the transition period. I want to stress, though, that what will be delivered on day one will be significantly different from how people experience the DWP and is not the limit of the Scottish ministers’ aspirations.

We have already announced an independent review of the adult disability payment that will be carried out in two stages. The initial stage will commence later this year and will look at mobility criteria. The full adult disability payment framework will be considered during the second stage of the review, beginning in summer 2023.

In conclusion, I remain confident and determined that, from day one, the adult disability payment will deliver a new and much improved experience for disabled people and those with long-term health conditions. That experience will reflect the human right to social security and the ethos of dignity, fairness and respect that is at the heart of the new system that we are creating and delivering.

I welcome the opportunity to assist the committee in its consideration of the regulations and I am very happy take any questions that members might have.

I thank Pam Duncan-Glancy for her engagement and for her recognition of the significant changes that are being made.

On the points raised about our being constrained in the process of considering the eligibility criteria and the adequacy of the support, I refer to my opening statement. As I said, we have two workstreams working in tandem currently. We are launching a new benefit for applications and undertaking significant case transfer, which is unprecedented in its complexity. We must ensure that those who are receiving the new adult disability payment and those who are being transferred under the case transfer process from August receive the same amounts and are subject to the same criteria for assessment. That is about equality and parity. We have to ensure that, while in this tandem workstream, we are treating people the same and do not have a two-tier system.

I talked about the review earlier. I want to re-emphasise the important point that we recognise that, once case transfer has been completed, we should consider together—as a society and as a Parliament—what changes we should make at that juncture and consider what people’s experience has been of the adult disability payment. Once there has been experience of the new system, we will receive, through the review, information on what people’s perceptions and experience of the process have been.

We appreciate that we have heard, time and again over recent years, that the PIP descriptors are not consistently applied to individuals, particularly those with mental health conditions, fluctuating conditions or learning disabilities. Numerous successful appeals to DWP show that the PIP criteria have been wrongly interpreted. For example, when an individual is asked whether they can complete an activity, either at application stage or during an assessment, DWP’s consideration of those issues has not been applied properly or consistently.

However, in our system, when an individual is asked whether they can complete an activity, either at application stage or during a consultation with Social Security Scotland or with a practitioner of Social Security Scotland, the full impact of an activity on the individual, including pain and fatigue, will be considered. We will be applying the reliability criteria properly and consistently. If someone tells us that they cannot walk a certain distance without losing balance, that means that they cannot walk that distance safely.

The changes that we are making to the delivery of the adult disability payment, such as providing additional application channels and replacing assessments with person-centred consultations, are intended to address many of the concerns that people rightly have about how mobility criteria are applied. We will monitor the impact of the changes on awards and collect feedback from clients and stakeholders, as I have said. We cannot know for certain what the impacts of the improvements that we are making will be until we commence delivery. That is why it is important that we have the pilot and the review.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission has projected that we will spend more on the adult disability payment because of the way in which we are delivering it. That is an indication that the commission believes that more people will be successful in obtaining awards.

Now is not the time to be definitive on particular parts of the eligibility criteria and on whether they should change once we have undertaken the review. We will undertake the review and see what people’s experiences are of the new system. We can consider together the recommendations of the review and what change we could or should make once we emerge from the process of the twin set of workstreams, in which we will be in shortly, of delivering the new benefit and case transfer at the same time.

I presume that the committee’s interest in that is with regard to considerations around the green paper from the UK Government. We do not want to pre-empt the review. The necessary prioritisation of safe and secure delivery of the adult disability payment means that we have been clear throughout the process about our intention that changes to eligibility criteria should not be made before the case transfer process is complete, as I have stated many times today.

The second stage of the independent review, which I talked about, will enable exploration of wider considerations of how we want the system to work in Scotland. That will provide an opportunity to consider alternative approaches, such as a whole-life disability benefit, without introducing significant change to eligibility criteria, which would put the safe and secure transfer at risk. To do that, we need an agency that is capable of delivering change and adapting. That is why it is important, in building the capacity of Social Security Scotland, that we undertake the period ahead in a safe and secure way. We want to hear what the independent review says. The point that Mr Briggs raises will of course be a point of interest in the review process.

I would like to add something briefly. I noted Bill Scott’s evidence to the committee in December and his positive comments about the difference that the local delivery teams have made in the delivery of the child disability payment. He made important points about the significance of word of mouth in relation to the different experience and better service. I am confident that, when we deliver the adult disability payment, we will see a similar effect, with people having a different and improved experience, which will help to build confidence in communities in the new service that we are providing.

Thank you, Mr Balfour. As you would expect, as new case law emerges, we regularly and consistently consider its application and its repercussions for all the benefits to which it relates.

We are absolutely committed to considering case law that emerges in different parts of the UK and its repercussions for our system and for people in Scotland. Kayleigh Blair, from the Scottish Government legal division, will speak briefly about that.

I would be grateful if Kayleigh Blair would answer Mr Balfour.

It is an important point.

It may be helpful to the committee if I bring in David Hilber to add to what I have said about case transfer.