Official Report 696KB pdf
Disability Assistance (Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 2025 [Draft]
Welcome back, everyone.
Our next item of business is agenda item 4, which is consideration of an affirmative statutory instrument—the draft Disability Assistance (Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 2025. The instrument is laid under the affirmative procedure, which means that the Parliament must approve it before it comes into force.
Before we move to the formal part of the agenda item, I bring in Mr Balfour.
I remind members of my entry in the register of members’ interests and note that I am in receipt of personal independence payment—PIP. However, I am pleased to say that I am hoping to transfer to the new Scottish adult payment in January. I am looking forward to that.
I think that Mr Balfour is hoping that that will be a seamless transfer.
I welcome to the meeting Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice. I also welcome her team of officials from the Scottish Government. They are Beth Stanners, who is a senior policy officer in the carer benefits and case transfer policy unit; David Hilber, who is team leader in case transfer policy; and Thomas Nicol, who is a lawyer. You are all very welcome, and I thank you for joining us today.
Following this evidence session, the committee will be invited, in an upcoming agenda item, to consider a motion to approve the instrument.
I remind everyone that Scottish Government officials can speak under this agenda item, but not in the debate that follows.
I invite the cabinet secretary to make a short opening statement.
Good morning, convener. I look forward to Mr Balfour’s direct feedback on the case transfer process, as it progresses.
I am pleased to speak to the committee about the draft Disability Assistance (Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 2025 today. The regulations, and the associated consequential amendments, will introduce the Scottish adult disability living allowance from March 2025 and provide a like-for-like case transfer for all remaining adults in Scotland who are in receipt of disability living allowance. This is the final important milestone in the Scottish Government’s ambitious five-year project to safely and securely transfer people’s disability and carer benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland.
Like DLA for adults in the rest of the United Kingdom, Scottish adult DLA will not be open to new applications. Adult disability payment will remain the main disability assistance for adults in Scotland. Instead, Scottish adult DLA maintains the commitment that was made that adults who were over 65 in 2013 when PIP was introduced can continue to receive DLA for as long as they are eligible. The regulations extend that commitment to all adults who are still on DLA, regardless of their age.
That approach is in marked difference to that of the DWP, which requires anyone who was under 65 in 2013 to make an application for personal independence payment if they have a changing condition or are due an award review. We have repeatedly heard how that process has caused significant stress and anxiety for those who went through face-to-face PIP assessments, and we have taken the opportunity to remove that concern from people.
As our priority is the safe and secure transition of awards, the eligibility rules for Scottish adult DLA are broadly similar to those for DLA. However, we have made a number of improvements, as we have done for other forms of disability assistance in Scotland, such as our more generous special rules for terminal illness, providing short-term assistance and ensuring that equal consideration is given to all sources of supporting information.
Once people’s awards have safely moved to Scottish adult DLA, anyone in the younger group—those who were under 65 in 2013—can apply for adult disability payment if they wish to do so. We will provide individuals with clear information to inform their choice of whether they wish to apply for ADP or remain on Scottish adult DLA.
We have engaged extensively with disabled people and our key stakeholders in developing proposals for the transfer of all remaining DLA awards for adults in Scotland. I am immensely grateful to everyone who has participated in the process for Scottish adult DLA, including the members of the former disability and carer benefits expert advisory group, who have been so generous with their time, and the members of the Scottish Commission on Social Security, which provided a number of thoughtful and constructive recommendations on draft regulations. I have accepted almost all of the recommendations from both groups, and I issued my response to the commission’s report when the regulations were laid.
I welcome the opportunity to assist the committee with further consideration of the regulations today.
Thank you, cabinet secretary. We have a few questions this morning.
Good morning, cabinet secretary and officials.
I will broaden out from where we started the conversation. What is the Government doing to ensure that all those who are transferring will be properly supported and communicated with?
In addition, we know that there have, in the past, been issues affecting processing times, which we have debated and discussed. I appreciate that such issues can be challenging, but I am keen to know what preparation the cabinet secretary is making for some of those known challenges.
We have very much designed the case transfer process to be safe and secure. Ensuring that people receive the right payments at the right time, with no break in entitlement, is important, and is the top priority. As with other case transfers, people will not need to do anything—the process will happen automatically.
As part of the case transfer process, people will receive letters that clearly explain why the DLA award has been selected for case transfer, what they can expect and who they can contact for further information. We will communicate with individuals in the stakeholder organisations through the usual range of channels to ensure that they are aware of what is going on, should they be required to support anyone who is going through the case transfer process.
We recently met the ill health and disability benefits stakeholder reference group to discuss the approach to communications. The group’s members were supportive of our planned approach, which is to provide information that is tailored to individuals’ specific circumstances.
I appreciate what Paul O’Kane said about the timings in some of the earliest areas of case transfer. Timings have improved markedly, and I thank the DWP for its work in speeding up the movement of cases to Social Security Scotland.
The feedback from people who have been through the case transfer process has been positive. The client survey that was conducted in October and November 2023 showed that a significant majority of people felt informed and reassured about the process, and 80 per cent of people said that the communication that they had received was clear and easy to understand. From 2024-25, the Scottish Government has also allocated £12 million to support, for example, third sector organisations in provision of assistance and support.
I hope that that gives the committee reassurance that we are learning with regard to the improvements that we need to make in the case transfer process, and that we are also supporting others who can give independent advice through that process.
Good morning, cabinet secretary. Paul O’Kane kind of stole my thunder there, because I am a bit concerned about case transfer, too, given that there have been concerns previously.
I am seeking a level of comfort with regard to awareness of potential issues. Our committee papers state that approximately 66,000 people will be transferring, so I would like to know that the transfer will be seamless.
I am happy to provide further detail in writing about the success of the case transfer process. I was speaking just this week to DWP and Scotland Office colleagues about how the case transfer process has gone exceptionally well, from the points of view of both Governments. We appreciate that there were lessons to learn about speeding up the process at the beginning, but it is going exceptionally smoothly and well, and to time. I am happy to provide reassurance to the committee on that, and in particular on what will happen with the individuals who will be coming over to Scottish adult DLA.
In addition to the information that I gave in my first answer, to Paul O’Kane, I note that we are keen to ensure that Social Security Scotland is staffed, and that those staff are trained specifically on Scottish adult DLA. Some of them will be new staff, but there will also be experienced staff who have dealt with the case transfer process with the adult disability payment, so the new staff can gain from experience that has already been amassed of the previous process.
Collette Stevenson, do you want to add anything?
No, thank you. That is fine.
I call Jeremy Balfour.
I wish a good morning to you and your team, cabinet secretary. We welcome the transfer, as it seems to be the final piece in the jigsaw.
I have a couple of questions. In your statement, you said that you said that if there is a change in a claimant’s circumstances, the DWP makes them apply for PIP. For clarification, if someone is on DLA at the moment, and their circumstances change and they give notification of the change, will they be reviewed under the DLA regulations, as before? How will that work in practice?
I am happy to clear that up, and my officials can chip in if I miss anything.
That is one of the changes that we are keen to make from the DWP’s practice. The DWP requires people to change to PIP when their circumstances change. We will not do that: claimants will be assessed in the Scottish adult DLA system and will not be required to change over to the new system. They may wish to do so, but that is for them to decide—we may come on to that discussion later—but there is no requirement for them to do so.
What advice would Social Security Scotland give to somebody on whether it would be helpful to them to swap over to the new system? Will people be referred to some kind of adviser? Obviously, everyone’s circumstances are different—for some people there has been a benefit to swapping from DLA to PIP, while for others there has not. If someone were to phone in to ask, how would that work in practice?
You have raised an important point about advice. Social Security Scotland will not give advice to anyone. It is not there to do so, for this benefit or, indeed, for any others. What it can give, and will give, is information. It will give the information that there is the option to move over to the adult disability payment.
As you say, some people will benefit from that information and some people might not. It is not possible to know whether specific individuals would benefit from it until they have gone through the adult disability payment process. However, it is absolutely not the role of the agency—nor should it be—to suggest to someone whether they would or would not be better off after the process.
The important part is to provide the information and, as I mentioned in my earlier answers, to signpost people to those who can give advice. We provide the information; others provide the advice.
You mentioned that you had picked up most of the points that were recommended by SCOSS. One of the areas on which you did not seem to be so keen was the recommendation to provide flexibility in the 12-month deadline to reinstate an award. The Scottish Government decided against doing so. Why did you come to that decision?
We gave careful consideration to that point. In essence, the decision came down to the fact that I believe that a bright-line rule, such as the one that we have suggested, provides clarity and consistency for both individuals and support organisations.
People will be able to request that their Scottish adult DLA award be reinstated if it has ended in the past year. That ensures parity with the DWP’s approach for DLA renewal applications for an interval. We anticipate that, due to the rolling awards and light-touch reviews, the process will rarely be needed for Scottish adult DLA awards. On the other hand, the DWP’s DLA renewal process requires a full new application at the end of a fixed-term award. There are nuanced differences.
We believe that the provisions in the regulations have been drafted in a way that maintains Scottish adult DLA as a closed benefit, which means that it is available only for individuals who already have a DLA award when the Scottish adult DLA award is launched. We also believe that it is appropriate to limit to 12 months the length of time in which two awards can be linked, given that the awards must be underpinned by the same condition or conditions. Of course, if someone whose award ended more than 12 months ago has experienced a change in their condition, they may be entitled to disability assistance, but they would make a new application through the adult disability payment system.
Thank you. I have no further questions.
There being no further questions—
Bear with me a second. I will just check whether this is a new agenda item. I nearly stayed in the previous agenda item, cabinet secretary.
There being no further questions, we move to the next item, which is formal consideration of the motion. I invite the cabinet secretary to move the motion.
Motion moved,
That the Social Justice and Social Security Committee recommends that the Disability Assistance (Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 2025 [draft] be approved.—[Shirley-Anne Somerville]
There being no members wishing to contribute to a short debate on the matter, I should, technically, ask the cabinet secretary whether she wishes to sum up.
I will pass.
Perfect.
Motion agreed to.
10:30
The committee will report on the outcome of the motion in due course. I invite members to delegate to our convener, or me, if required, the signing off of that report. Is that agreed?
Members indicated agreement.
That concludes that item. Cabinet secretary, I thank you and your officials for your attendance this morning.
Before we move to item 6, it has been drawn to my attention that we were unclear about whether we were to take item 7 or item 8 in private, which was because of a numbering error in my brief. We will take item 7 in private. I just wanted to correct that on the record.
Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Amendment (No 3) Regulations 2024 (SSI 2024/310)
Item 6 is consideration of two pieces of subordinate legislation. The first is a Scottish statutory instrument on council tax reduction. It is subject to the negative procedure. The main purpose of the instrument is to update the Council Tax Reduction (State Pension Credit) (Scotland) Regulations of 2012 and 2021.
There being no comments, I ask members whether they are content to note the instrument?
Members indicated agreement.
Disability Assistance (Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance) (Consequential Amendment, Revocation and Saving Provision) Regulations 2024 (SSI 2024/311)
Second under item 6 is consideration of another SSI that is also subject to the negative procedure. The main purpose of the regulations is to make consequential amendments and revocation and savings provisions as a result of the introduction of the Scottish adult disability living allowance.
There being no comments from members, is the committee content to note the SSI?
Members indicated agreement.
We move to item 7, so we will continue in private.
10:33 Meeting continued in private until 10:43.