Accessible Vehicle and Equipment Scheme quarterly meeting group minutes: December 2021

Attendees and apologies

SG attendees: 

• Nikola Plunkett, Unit Head - Disability Benefits Policy
• Kate Thomson-McDermott, Unit Head - Case-Transfer Policy and Carer’s Benefits Policy 
• David George, Disability Benefits Policy Team Lead 
• Margaret Grigor, Disability Benefits Service Manager – Social Security Programme 
• Jo McKay, Product Owner for AVE, Social Security Programme
• Niall Wilson, Disability Benefits Policy Officer  

Motability attendees:

• Barry Le Grys
• Ian Goswell
• Rachel Badger 
• Michelle Vellacott
• Bernie Couper

Items and actions

Purpose of quarterly meetings

It was discussed that quarterly meetings would usually be a forum to discuss significant emerging policy issues at a high-level and to strategize. It was observed that until ADP is launched and case-transfer is complete, we will not be in a steady state of service delivery, and this may necessitate discussing some policy / operational issues in more detail during quarterly meetings. SG Officials will reflect on this and make a proposal r.e. the scope of these meetings ahead of the next one, which will be next year. SG officials agreed to send out calendar invites, this year, to next year’s quarterly meetings.  

The service contract

The work by SG and Motability towards completing the service contract is nearly complete and is progressing at a reasonable rate with no concerns expressed.

Suspension of assistance by Ministers

We discussed the circumstances under which assistance may be suspended. These powers will come into effect from 09 Feb 2021. Reference was made to the discussion paper prepared by SG on when Ministers would be looking to suspend assistance, how long for, what SG would expect from Motability while assistance is suspended and vice versa. Motability proposed that terms based on those in the discussion paper could be incorporated into one of the schedules to the contract. SG officials are content with this approach. When asked, SG officials could not think of any further policies which would have an impact on Motability that it needed to be aware of.

[REDACTED - this information relates to the formulation of government policy.]

Case-transfer policy

We discussed that Disability Living Allowance to Child Disability Payment case transfer started in October this year.  As yet only one client with a Motability contract had been selected for transfer but more were likely to follow in the new year. Case transfer for this cohort was on target to be complete by summer next year. It was noted that the process for clients moving from Personal Independence Payment to Adult Disability Payment would follow a very similar process.

We discussed that in Scotland there are around 42,000 working-age recipients of Disability Living Allowance who would have been transferred over to Personal Independence Payment had the DWP’s migration programme completed ahead of the transfer of executive competence to Scottish Ministers as intended. At the point of transfer of executive competence, Scottish Ministers requested the planned migration of Scottish Working Age Disability Living Allowance client was halted due to concerns over the migration process. Adult Disability Payment has been designed to closely match the eligibility and entitlement criteria for Personal Independence Payment to protect safe and secure transfer. Although the assessment processes for Adult Disability Payment will be very different, this still raises a challenge in designing a supportive and fair pathway onto Adult Disability Payment for these clients.  

SG officials were keen to learn more about Motability’s experiences in supporting clients from the move from Disability Living Allowance onto Personal Independence Payment and asked whether those clients’ existing entitlement to the Transitional Support Package, were they to move to Personal Independence Payment, could be transferred to apply to these clients following their first full assessment to Adult Disability Payment. Motability were supportive of this, noting it would need to be on the same terms as for clients moving to Personal Independence Payment and asked that SG officials write to Motability on this matter providing more detail on anticipated volumes and timescales.