Child Disability Payment Amendment Regulations: draft equality impact assessment

Key findings

• A summary of the available evidence and data collected to help inform this EQIA is provided in the table below:

Age

• As of August 2020, 41,811 children in Scotland were receiving DLAC^[21], representing 4.5% of children under age 16^[22].
• The peak age for entitlement to DLAC is at age 11, with 4,102 children receiving an award of DLAC.
• As of March 2021, 29 children entitled to DLAC in Scotland were terminally ill, representing 0.04% of all Scottish child DLAC cases^[23].
• Since 2016, fewer than five individuals under the age of 16 have been detained in legal custody in Scotland^[24].
• Our Experience Panel research highlighted^[25].
  • Almost all respondents to an Experience Panel survey felt that 16 was not the right age to transition to PIP. It was suggested that 18 was a more suitable age.

Disability

• 12% of all children under age 16 have a limiting longstanding illness, whilst 19% of all young people aged 16-24 have a limiting longstanding illness^[26].
• 38% of children with a limiting longstanding illness had a mental health condition, 28% had a respiratory condition, and 12% had a musculoskeletal condition^[27].
• As of August 2020, 41,811 children in Scotland were receiving DLAC^[28], representing 4.8% of children under age 16^[29].
• As of March 2021, 29 children entitled to DLAC in Scotland were terminally ill, representing 0.06% of all Scottish child DLAC cases^[30]

• In 2018, 1,050 children (1%) within early learning and childcare registrations were either assessed or declared as disabled^[31]. 14% of those registered had additional support needs^[32].
• A 2015 research paper comparing 42 global studies reported a five-fold increase in the prevalence of ADHD in youth prison populations (30.1%) compared to the general population which ranged between 3-7%^[33].
• Work with Experience Panels has identified:
  • Support for the introduction of Short-Term Assistance^[34].
• Respondents to our 2019 Consultation on Disability Assistance in Scotland stated^[35]:
  • Support for the introduction of STA for individuals undergoing a re-determination or appealing a decision made on an ongoing award of disability assistance.
  • Just under half of respondents who answered (49%) agreed that STA should be subject to deductions in respect of an overpayment agreement.
  • A key theme was that disability assistance is essential to meeting the extra costs associated with ongoing health needs and reducing the level of assistance could cause hardship.
  • Some respondents suggested using a case-by-case approach to decision-making.

Marriage and civil partnership

• No data is available about young disabled people under this protected characteristic grouping. There were no comments during the consultation on marriage and civil partnership.

Pregnancy and maternity

• No data is available about young disabled people under this protected characteristic grouping. There were no comments during the consultation on pregnancy and maternity.

Race

• Just under 4% of Scotland’s population belong to minority ethnic groups, and 7% of our total population communicate in home languages other than English.
• This number rises to 9.1% within the population of children registered for Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland^[36].
• We do not have statistics showing the number of children and young people within Scotland who apply for disability benefits and who belong to minority ethnic groups. However, UK wide information from 2015/16-2017/2018 suggests that minority ethnic families in all age groups are slightly less likely to apply for DLA than white families, with a slight exception for Bangladeshi families who are more likely to receive the DLA care component^[37].
• The 2011 census found:
  • both for the general population and the 0-24 age group, “White” people are more likely to say their day to day activities are limited “a lot” or “a little” by their long-term health conditions, compared to their share in the population. This is not true for any of the other ethnic categories apart from “Caribbean or Black” respondents aged 0-24 who are slightly more likely to say their day-to-day activity is limited “a little”^[38].
  • there was a wide variation between men and women in different ethnic groups. Women from the three groups “Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Gypsy/Traveller” recorded higher rates of 'health problem or disability' than women from the “White: Scottish” ethnic group, while men from only two ethnic groups, “Pakistani” and “Gypsy/Traveller”, recorded higher rates of “health problem or disability” than men from the “White: Scottish” ethnic group^[39].
  • just over 4,000 people in Scotland (0.1% of the population) identified their ethnic group as “White: Gypsy/Traveller”^[40]. Generally, Gypsy/Traveller households were more likely to contain dependent children (36% compared to 26% of the population as a whole) and they were three times more likely to contain “three or more” dependent children^[41]. The number of Gypsy/Traveller children who receive disability benefits under the current system is unknown.
• Gypsy/Traveller households were more likely to have no central heating (5 per cent) than all households (2 per cent). They were also more likely to have “Electric Central Heating” and “2 or more types of Central Heating”. Only 62 per cent of Gypsy/Traveller households had gas central heating compared to 74 per cent of the population^[42].

Religion and belief

• According to latest data published by Scottish Surveys Core Question in 2019, 50% of respondents identified as having “no religion” while 47% identified as Christian (“Church of Scotland”, “Roman Catholic” or “other Christian”), 2% as Muslim, and 2% as an “other religion”^[43].
• Once age was taken into account, in comparison to those with no religious affiliation, a lower proportion of “other” religious groups reported good/very good general health and a higher proportion reported having a limiting long-term condition. “Other Christians” reported a higher level of good/very good general health than the “no religion” reference group^[44].

Sex

• 70.3% of DLA cases under 16 are male. This accounts for 29,205 cases. The remaining 12,319 being female.
• One of the main causes of this disparity is the much more frequent diagnosis of boys with behavioural and learning disabilities compared to girls, totalling 15,407 male and 5,351 female^[45].
• A 2015 research paper comparing 42 global studies reported a five-fold increase in the prevalence of ADHD in youth prison populations (30.1%) compared to the general population which ranged between 3-7%^[46].
• There is no significant difference in the number of individuals applying for DLAC with a terminal illness on the basis of gender^[47].

Sexual orientation and Gender Reassignment

• In 2015, 4.5% of young people in Scotland identified their sexual orientation as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or other^[48].
• In 2017, 22% of the LGBTI young people (age 13 to 25 years of age) who completed an online survey (though self-selecting) for LGBT Youth Scotland^[49] reported having a disability.
• 84% of LGBTI young people and 96% of transgender young people who completed the LGBT Youth Scotland survey have experienced mental health problems and associated behaviours.^[50]
• Many of the young people we engaged with had already undergone a PIP assessment in the current system and had experienced homophobia/ transphobia by assessors. They spoke sometimes of dismissive and disrespectful attitudes towards shared living arrangements with same-sex partners.