Child Winter Heating Assistance: evaluation report - qualitative research

Background and Methodology

Introduction

This report presents the findings from qualitative research with recipients of Child Winter Heating Assistance in Winter 2021. In-depth interviews were carried out in February 2022 by Axiom Research & Consultancy on behalf of the Scottish Government, Social Security Directorate.

Project Background

The Scottish Government is creating a new social security system for Scotland. These powers were devolved in the Scotland Act 2016. One of the aims underpinning the new system is to tackle poverty.

Child Winter Heating Assistance (hereafter referred to as CWHA) is an annual payment made to the most severely disabled children and young people up to, and including, the age of 18. It delivers on the SNP 2016 manifesto to extend the eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment to families with children in receipt of the highest care component of Disability Living Allowance. This has since been extended to clients on the highest rate of the care component of Child Disability Payment and to young people in receipt of the enhanced rate of the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment and, as of winter 2022/23, Adult Disability Payment.

To receive CWHA the child or young person must be entitled to the qualifying benefit on any single day during the “qualifying week”. The “qualifying week” is the week running from the third Monday in September in any given year. In 2021 the qualifying week was Monday 20 September to Sunday 26 September 2021.

The payment was introduced in November 2020 and is not available elsewhere in the UK.

The payment is not means-tested and does not have to be used directly on heating costs. If the household has more than one eligible child or young person, they will each get the payment.

Most families do not need to apply for this benefit[1]. Social Security Scotland makes the payments automatically to entitled children and young people. Recipients receive a letter telling them that they are entitled to the payment.

In 2020/21 the payment was £200. The amount payable for 2021/22 was £202 due to uprating. For 2022/23 CWHA will be uprated by 6% to £214.10.

The policy intent for CWHA is to mitigate increased heating costs incurred by families of severely disabled children and young people. These increased heating costs are incurred as a result of having to sustain a higher temperature at home during winter due to their disability or long-term condition and having to heat their home throughout the night due to night-time care needs. More specifically, disabled children, young people and their families are likely to incur increased heating costs as a result of:

• heating their homes to a higher temperature in winter, in line with World Health Organization (WHO) Guidance on room temperatures for vulnerable people;
• the need to heat their homes through the night, or for periods of the night, because another person is required to provide care and support to the child or young person during the night in respect of needs arising from the individual’s disability or condition; and
• the need to heat their homes for longer periods through the winter because of the likelihood of most children or young people being present in the family home for longer periods of time.

The recent economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated financial pressures for many financially vulnerable families in Scotland, potentially adding to the challenges of keeping their house warm during the winter.

In addition, the UK energy market has recently been seriously disrupted, with a number of UK energy firms having gone into administration during autumn/winter 2021. During the programme of research, the energy regulator Ofgem confirmed it was increasing the domestic energy tariff cap by 54% from 1 April 2022.

Due to the current disruption to the UK energy market many households are faced with additional concerns, ranging from continuity of supply, price increases, to losing any energy credits they may have accrued over the summer with the previous supplier.

The Scottish Government is committed to listening to those who have had direct experience of receiving CWHA, with the aim of identifying any challenges within the current system and to identify potential ways in which the payment and the payment process can be improved longer term. The qualitative research detailed in this report explores the experiences and impact of receiving CWHA. A wider policy evaluation to assess the extent to which CWHA has met its policy goals will draw on this qualitative research with recipients of CWHA alongside evidence from management information and Social Security Scotland research activity.

Research Objectives

The principal aim of the research was to provide timely insights on the experiences of CWHA recipients, exploring the impact of CWHA on:

• the financial wellbeing of households
• the physical health and wellbeing of severely disabled children, young people and their families
• increasing the recognition around the extra financial demands required during winter to keep houses warm for longer periods while caring for severely disabled children and young people.

Specifically, the research was conducted to provide a better understanding on:

• The types of goods and services purchased with the payment
• The extent to which CWHA impacted on any financial pressure associated with increased heating expenditure
• The extent to which CWHA impacted on the ability of households to heat their home in winter.

Research Method

To meet the objectives of this research, in-depth interviews were completed with 19 individuals who received CWHA on behalf of their child in winter 2021.

The recruitment of CWHA recipients was undertaken via Social Security Scotland’s Client Panels[2]. The Panels are made up of individuals who have opted in to be contacted for further research after completing Social Security Scotland’s Client Survey. At the time of recruitment, the number of Client Panel members who had received the winter 21/22 CWHA payment was approximately 260. The research was promoted to these 260 panel members, with Social Security Scotland contacting them directly by letter/email and asking them to contact Axiom if they wanted to take part in the research. The research was also promoted on the myGov.scot website.

Potential respondents were offered an incentive of a £30 Love2Shop voucher to thank them for their participation in the research.

Following promotion of the research by Social Security Scotland, 26 potential respondents initially contacted Axiom to opt into the research (representing a response rate of 10% from the 260 potential respondents on the Social Security Client Panel).

A reminder email was subsequently issued by Social Security Scotland with the aim of increasing the participation rate. However, the reminder did not generate any additional interest

Each potential respondent was subsequently recontacted by the Axiom research team to check that they had received the CWHA 21/22 payment and to set up a suitable appointment time to conduct the interview.

Of the 26 potential respondents that Axiom contacted:

• 1 did not respond to our request to provide additional contact details to enable pre-screening
• 4 stated that they had not yet received their CWHA payment
• 1 had a phone number which had been disconnected
• 1 withdrew interest due to health reasons

All respondents interviewed had one child who was eligible for the CWHA payment in the household.

Of the 19 respondents interviewed, 13 lived in urban locations, with the remaining 6 living in rural locations.

The Socio-Economic Grouping (SEG) classifications are widely used by the Office for National Statistics and is used in the national Census to profile the income and economic activity across households. A definition of the six SEG classifications is provided in Appendix 3. In terms of socio-economic classifications, respondents had the following profile, where SEG A is the most affluent and SEG E is the least affluent.

A: 0

B: 0

C1: 2 respondents

C2: 0

D: 2 respondents

E: 15 respondents

When using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, research participants had the following characteristics using the SIMD20 Quintile classification, where SIMD 1 is the most deprived and SIMD 5 is the least deprived.[3]

SIMD 1: 3 respondents

SIMD 2: 6 respondents

SIMD 3: 2 respondents

SIMD 4: 4 respondents

SIMD 5: 4 respondents

All respondents were offered the choice of being interviewed by telephone or by video call. All interviewees preferred to be interviewed by phone. Interviews took place between the 2nd of February 2022 and the 28th February 2022. The majority of respondents had received their CWHA payment in late December, therefore the discussion focused on usage over a six- or seven-week period from mid to late December 2021 through to mid to late February 2022. Respondents reflected on how CWHA had helped them since they had received the payment.

A topic guide was designed to fully meet the information needs and requirements of the project, which was agreed with Scottish Government prior to the recruitment of research participants. A copy of the topic guide is provided in Appendix 1.

Analysis

The report provides an analysis of the research findings. The research was qualitative in nature, asking open-ended questions to allow interviewees to tell their story in relation to their experience as well as the impact of receiving CWHA.

The report is therefore largely narrative and should be viewed as offering insights that provide a better understanding of the feelings, attitudes, and experiences of recent CWHA recipients.

Report Structure

The report details the main research findings, addressing the Scottish Government’s key research aims. The main findings are presented as follows:

• Experience of receiving CWHA
  • Initial impressions of CWHA
  • Communication from, and contact with Social Security Scotland
  • The payment process
  • Goods and services purchased
  • Changes in use of the payment between Winter 20/21 and Winter 21/22
• Impacts of receiving CWHA payment
  • Impact on financial wellbeing of households
  • Impact on the health & wellbeing of the family
  • Recognition of the extra financial demands while caring for disabled children or young people
• Suggested Improvements to CWHA