Chamber and committees

If you have a charter, it is uncommon to say, “We will never hit this figure,” or, “We will not get most of it done.” What is a realistic time for an application? If I put an application in for ADP, what is my expectation?

As a committee, we need to go back and discuss that with the Scottish Government. If we have a charter and people read that charter but we will never hit those figures, it is almost not worth the paper it is written on.

Back in October, your colleague Janet Richardson came and gave evidence. She said:

“We recognise that, with applications opening so near to Christmas, people will be concerned about getting their money by then.”—[Official Report, Social Justice and Social Security Committee, 27 October 2022; c 6.]

Clearly, this was an issue that you were thinking about back in the autumn. On Facebook yesterday, you put up this comment to your clients:

“Because of the volume of applications, some people who applied in the week may not get a decision until early 2023.”

What discussions did you have with the Scottish Government to say, “We cannot deliver this for a substantial number of people”? What planning did you do so that we could limit the number? The number of people who will not get their money seems fairly high. We are trying to devise the system that we have all talked about with dignity, respect and so on, but we do not seem to be doing that with this new system.

I have a quick question about redetermination for the CDP. Correct me if I am wrong, but, as I read the figures, 85 per cent of requests for redetermination were granted. Why do you think that is such a high rate? It is certainly higher than it should be under the DWP scheme. What is happening with that first application by your staff?

You may not be able to answer this, but I am interested in the matter. The latest figure that we have is that, under ADP, there were 1,845 new applications out of 3,545. That seems quite a high figure. Do you have any early indication of why there are so many new applications at this stage, or is that what you expected when you went live?

That is helpful. Earlier, you spoke about work that you had done in the summer on when people should expect to hear from you about both an initial decision and a redetermination. If I apply, what is my expectation now for hearing about a first decision? Then, if I have to go to redetermination, how long that will take?

Thank you.

On a point of order, convener. Members of the committee received a letter addressed to you from Advice Talks Ltd, which raises interesting issues. How will the committee take it forward?

Thank you, convener.

Good morning. It is good to see you again.

I am a wee bit confused, given that the system has been designed from scratch. I appreciate that it was designed by the Scottish Government, which you now work with, but it seems to me, as an amateur information technology person, that we would want to start by getting the same data that the DWP collects so that we can compare apples with apples.

You are saying to us that we are not going to be able to compare what would have happened if people had stayed on PIP with what will happen with ADP because you are not recording it in the same way. From a scrutiny panel perspective, how do we know that the information will help to answer our questions? We will not be comparing the same things. I do not see why we did not design the system from the start so that we could compare the same things.

I will now, yes.