Disability and Carers Benefits Expert Advisory Group - beyond a safe and secure transfer: response from ministers

Dr Jim McCormick
Chair
Disability and Carers Benefits Expert Advisory Group (DACBEAG)
c/o Scottish Government

8 February 2023

Dear Jim,

Thank you for your letter dated 3 October 2022 enclosing DACBEAG’s advice titled ‘Beyond a safe and secure transfer’. I appreciate the significant time and resources group members have devoted to preparing this advice, and extend my thanks as well to external colleagues for their input.

As you say in the advice, the Scottish Government must address a broad and complex range of issues in the development of social security in Scotland, and in doing so we must work closely and effectively with our partners across the public, third sector, and with people with lived experience.

The issues and recommendations in DACBEAG’s advice will be an important reference point as we move beyond a safe and secure transfer. My responses below set out an initial overview of key considerations and responses to issues raised in each of the themes, recognising that much work remains to be done in the period ahead.

I look forward to discussing the advice when the Cabinet Secretary and I attend the Group’s meeting on 2 March 2023.

Consistency and language used in the stated purpose of disability and carer benefits

The response below is in regards to Recommendations 1-4.

The Scottish Government is firmly committed to the principle that social security is a human right and an investment in the people of Scotland. We recognise the importance of the social security system in tackling poverty and advancing equality. That is why we explicitly reflected those principles in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. The Scottish Government is also guided by the social model of disability, as set out in A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: delivery plan.

The language used to describe disability assistance to date ensures the stated purpose remains consistent with the UK benefits that disability assistance will replace. We will keep under review how we communicate the purpose of each form of assistance in order to ensure consistency in the materials that we publish and to ensure that our language reflects our underpinning principles. We will take an evidence-led approach in considering any potential future changes as part of our commitment to continuously improve Scotland’s social security system. DACBEAG’s recommendations will be an important source of evidence for these considerations.

When we first consulted on the purpose of Scottish Carer's Assistance the overall response favoured a purpose similar to Carer’s Allowance. Our new Scottish Government benefit will provide recognition and replacement income for carers who are less able to take on paid work because of caring responsibilities. This is why it will continue to be targeted at carers with more significant caring roles and earnings from employment which are below a certain level.

In the Scottish Carer's Assistance public consultation which ran from February to May 2022 we set out the Scottish Carer's Assistance aims in more detail. These were informed by a range of work with carers and support organisations, including research with carers and advice from the Group and our Carer Benefits Advisory Group, including engagement events on the aims. These aims have been used to develop the options and proposals for how our benefit should work in future, and will be used in assessing how well any changes we do make have made a difference for carers.

The aims are:

1. Scottish Carer's Assistance provides income for unpaid carers in recognition of their vital role and its impact on their lives. It is delivered in a way that takes into account that different carers have different needs, and that different caring situations have different impacts

2. Scottish Carer's Assistance provides stability and supports carers to access opportunities outside of caring, where possible, and should they wish to do so

3. Scottish Carer's Assistance is designed to ensure carers have a positive experience of the social security system, and to maximise carers' take-up of all support available to them.

These aims are designed to contribute to our overall vision for carers in Scotland set out in the National Carers Strategy. We want Scotland to be a place where all carers are recognised and valued for the contribution they make, where they are enabled to provide the right support for the people they care for while living full, rounded lives.

We absolutely recognise, as highlighted in DACBEAG’s recommendations, that delivering a replacement for Carer’s Allowance that works better for carers and continues to contribute to advancing equality and non-discrimination is an ongoing process and not a single event. We will continue to ensure that our communications makes clear our commitment to continuously improve support for carers, including reaching the widest possible range of carers, and ensuring all carers have a positive experience of our social security system.

Poverty and the adequacy of disability and carer benefits

The response below is in regards to Recommendations 5-9.

The Scottish Government is using our devolved powers to take a different approach to providing social security for disabled people and carers, in line with our Charter and core values of dignity, fairness and respect.

As above, we are fully committed to social security as a human right. The principles in the 2018 Act include advancing equality and reducing poverty and we recognise that an effective social security system plays a key role in addressing financial inequalities. We will continue to monitor the impact that devolved benefits have on people through research and analytical activity.

Our plans for evaluating devolved disability benefits were published in October 2021, which DACBEAG advised on at the time. Our thematic approach allows us to consider the impact of key policy changes and to maximise learning across the system. We completed an evaluation of Carer’s Allowance Supplement in December 2020 and an interim evaluation of Young Carer Grant in August 2021. We will publish our plans for evaluating Scottish Carer’s Assistance in due course.

We have a range of wider sources of evidence to enable effective evaluation and support policy development. The Carers Census collects information on unpaid carers supported by local services, providing information on carer demographics, carers’ diverse needs and situations and helping assessment of the level of support accessed by carers. There are also Scottish

Government surveys, such as the Scottish Health Survey, which covers unpaid carers’ health, wellbeing, support and impact on employment, and the Health and Care Experience Survey which looks at carers’ experiences with support.

The Scottish Government’s National Carers Strategy sets out a cross-government approach to carers’ issues including through social security and social care policies and supporting carers in employment and education. A chapter signposts the financial support available to carers, as well as listing actions committed to by the Scottish Government to foster the social and financial inclusion of carers.

The National Carers Strategy focuses on carers and their needs, setting out how policies across the Scottish Government fit with the activities of partner organisations. It will help support carers in a meaningful and sustainable way as we recover from the pandemic and go through the cost of living crisis. We have engaged extensively with carers about the Strategy’s scope and purpose to ensure that this is shaped by those who best understand the many challenges faced.

Alongside its second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, Best Start, Bright Futures, the Scottish Government published analysis estimating the impact of our social security and other policies on child poverty. This found that Scottish Government policies would reduce child poverty by

10 percentage points in 2023/24, keeping around 90,000 children out of poverty. Separate analysis estimated that the Scottish Child Payment alone would reduce child poverty by 5 percentage points in 2023/24.

Looking to the future, you will be aware that we are committed to working with partners to develop a Minimum Income Guarantee which could provide everyone in Scotland with a minimum acceptable standard of living, ensuring everyone has enough money for housing, food and essentials to allow then to live a decent, dignified, healthy and financially secure life. This work is being led by an Expert Group which includes a number of DACBEAG members. The Expert Group is expected to publish an interim report early this year.

The Scottish Government will continue to use the powers we have to address poverty and inequality. However, our powers are limited and we cannot tackle these challenges in isolation. We will therefore continue to call for the UK Government to do more to support people through the reserved social security benefit system.

Passported benefits

The response below is in regards to Recommendations 10 and 11.

We recognise the significant challenges of maintaining automatic receipt of reserved benefits for clients of devolved social security. That, as DACBEAG is aware, has been a central requirement in the establishment of new devolved benefits, including case transfer, and will remain central as policy on devolved, and indeed, reserved benefits evolves in the future. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) share our commitment to strong and close working on these matters. In giving evidence before the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on 10 March 2022, the former Minister for Disabled People (the Rt Hon Chloe Smith MP) affirmed a commitment to ensure that DWP will continue to find ways to ensure disabled people and carers receive passported benefits, should the eligibility criteria for devolved benefits depart significantly from their reserved counterparts.

The formal requirements for that are of course set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between Scottish Ministers and the DWP on joint working arrangements. This includes arrangements on the implementation of devolved functions relating to social security. It is a basis on which to build enduring joint operational working and collaboration between both Governments.

There is also an agreement between UK and Scottish Government Ministers that analysts from the DWP and the Scottish Government will work together to analyse any potential spill over costs, as per the Fiscal Framework, arising from the passporting of clients of devolved benefits to reserved benefit premia. This work has been carried out for financial year 2021/22 and will continue for 2022/23.

In addition, we currently have data sharing agreements in place with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), DWP, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Local Authorities. We are also in the process of finalising a data sharing agreement with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) for the purpose of National Entitlement Cards.

Review of disability benefits and the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment

The response below is in regards to Recommendations 12-15 and 17-21.

We have created a compassionate, learning system of social security for disabled people in Scotland. Our approach to delivering disability assistance has been to co-design our system to meet the needs of disabled people. It is underpinned by our commitment to treating disabled people with dignity, fairness and respect.

As detailed earlier, in October 2021, we published our strategy for the evaluation of disability assistance. The strategy covers all forms of disability assistance, in addition to several bespoke evaluation projects. This will provide us with valuable insights about the policy impacts of all forms of disability assistance, including gathering information on the experiences of applicants, clients and staff.

Our priority in developing Adult Disability Payment has been to deliver a safe and secure transition of people’s payments from DWP to Social Security Scotland. This includes not making significant changes to the eligibility criteria for Adult Disability Payment at launch to avoid creating a two-tier system. We have made significant improvements to the application and decision-making processes, that will give disabled people a significantly better experience, with DACBEAG contributing several advice documents that influenced these developments.

We recognise that there is considerable interest in the eligibility criteria for the mobility component of Adult Disability Payment. Work is already underway with disabled people, stakeholders and academics to build a broad evidence base on the eligibility criteria for the mobility component. We have now launched a public consultation regarding the mobility criteria. The analysis and responses to the consultation will be published in line with standard consultation practice and passed to the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment to inform that review.

As part of the Consultation on Enhanced Administration and Compensation Recovery, we have sought views on the policy advice and scrutiny landscape for social security in Scotland. The findings from this will help to inform decisions about the approach to the Independent Review. We will set out further detail on the membership, timing, and remit of the Independent Review in due course.

It would be premature to make any commitments about how we will respond to the recommendations by the Independent Review. It will be essential to be realistic about both the practicability of delivery and the affordability of any changes.

Future and ongoing review beyond the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment

The below response is in regards to Recommendation 16.

The collection of good quality data across a range of metrics, including the identification of data gaps, is a priority for Scottish Government analysts in order to effectively appraise and evaluate policy on an ongoing basis. Significant changes to Scottish Government policy undergo a suite of impact assessments (including business and regulatory impact assessments and equalities impact assessments) that consider impacts beyond just the financial impacts as well as wider costs and benefits to society.

The Social Security Principles in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 were the starting point for research working with Experience Panels members to co-design Our Charter, with DACBEAG also contributing to this process. Panel members used these principles to agree a "checklist" of content for the charter, which reflected what they felt that principles would look and feel like in practice for clients of Social Security Scotland. This checklist was the basis of the drafting of Our Charter (again, through co-design with panel members), and was the basis for the Charter Measurement Framework. The Charter Measurement Framework is used as tool to assess the performance of Social Security Scotland against the requirements of Our Charter, and as such, the Social Security Principles. Part 4 of the Charter Measurement Framework specifically addresses policy making – policy making shows the Social Security Principles at work. The Social Security Charter, and the Charter Measurement Framework, are due to be reviewed this year.

Once again, this will be done through a co-design process, this time with Social Security Scotland Clients through the Client Panels.

An independent peer-review of the Experience Panels was carried out in 2019. This was timed to be carried out mid-way through the originally intended life-span of the Experience Panels programme, before the Experience Panels programme timeline was extended in line with the timeframe of the Social Security Programme. The peer-review provided a positive assessment of Experience Panels approach, processes and systems.

The Social Security Experience Panels research team collects demographic data through "About You" surveys. All questions are voluntary and include "prefer not to say" options. Panel members have provided data on age, gender, ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and long-term health conditions, caring responsibilities, experiences of benefits and their geographical location. Data is published in "Who is in the Panels" reports. It is redacted only so far as to ensure that no participants can be individually identifiable. The demographic data held on participants can be matched against their future research participation, and where numbers allow, this is included in research reports. We also share demographic breakdowns of Experience Panels participation in all presentations about the work of the panel and dissemination of findings.

"About You" surveys have also asked panel members for their feedback on their experiences participating in this research. This feedback is included in the same reports and recommendations from panel members have been acted on by the team.

Additional work has been carried out to ensure that communities who may not otherwise be well represented on the Experience Panels are part of the research to inform the design of the new benefits system. The first phase of analysis on our Seldom Heard communities research is published on our publications page, and further analysis will be published in the first half of this year. In addition, if the Experience Panels membership is unable to reflect the needs of specific user groups, user researchers in the Social Security Programme will recruit participants through third sector, community partners, and private companies.

Carer benefits

The below response is in regards to Recommendations 22-26.

As set out earlier, in line with the response to our initial consultation on devolved benefits, the purposes of Scottish Carer's Assistance are similar to those for Carer’s Allowance - to replace income for carers less able to work due to caring responsibilities. While the benefit is not intended to cover costs associated with a caring role or to provide sufficient income for carers to live on, we recognise the concerns highlighted by the Group and through the consultation about carer incomes and the impacts of the pandemic and cost of living crisis on carers in particular.

In developing Scottish Carer's Assistance, we have considered how the benefit could work better for carers than Carer’s Allowance and reach more carers, including removing barriers to higher earnings and education, in addition to the extra support provided by Carer’s Allowance Supplement and to be made available through Carer's Additional Person Payment. As noted earlier, work which is ongoing to consider a Minimum Income Guarantee will consider, among other things, the incomes of unpaid carers and the financial support available.

We recognise that there are a number of areas where significant gaps remain in our understanding of particular protected characteristics and carers. Most notable are the characteristics of sexual orientation, gender reassignment, ethnicity and religion and belief. From the information we have received to date, we understand DWP may hold limited data covering

these characteristics for Carer’s Allowance recipients. As a result, we have no historical information for these groups, and we will not have it for people who are already in receipt of Carer’s Allowance whose benefits will transfer to Social Security Scotland. We are considering what we can do to improve the equalities data we will have for those transferring from DWP.

We will of course gather equalities data for new applicants to Scottish Carer’s Assistance. As set out above, the Equalities Monitoring form is consistent across all benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland and covers gender, ethnicity, trans status, disability, sexual orientation and religion. However, we are mindful that it may be some time before we have the full picture of who applies for and receives the benefit, and what that means. These questions are also voluntary, therefore we can only gather what applications are willing to share.

There is also more to consider than statistics. It is vital that we understand the experience of carers on a day to day basis, and identify and respond to any barriers particular communities face. We do have some knowledge of this through regular engagement with DACBEAG and with stakeholders from the Carer Benefits Advisory Group, as well as analysis of Young Carer Grant recipients but we want to understand and address any issues particular to the caring role. We are therefore considering what steps are needed to achieve this, working with organisations who support carers in these groups.

As set out in the Scottish Carer’s Assistance consultation, we are committed to using the introduction of our new benefit to help carers find out about and access all of the support they are entitled to in social security and beyond, signposting and linking carers to other services. We will also be working over the longer term, once Scottish Carer’s Assistance is introduced to consider how we can work with other areas of government and public services to ensure more joined up support for carers, considering in particular where they may need support at certain points of a caring role.

We invited views as part of our Scottish Carer's Assistance consultation on how we could link carers with wider support and services. We are considering the feedback from the consultation, and the Group’s advice and will provide further information on this in our response, including in respect of benefit uptake.

We are working with carers and support organisations to ensure that the information, advice and guidance provided on Scottish Carer's Assistance is clear and supports carers to understand and access the full range of support that they are entitled to, and supports advisors to provide clear information. We recognise the complexities of Scottish Carer's Assistance in terms of how it will interact with other benefits and support and the need to be as clear as possible. The best advice for carers in terms of income maximisation will often depend on individual circumstances and we will also ensure clear signposting for carers to specific advice for this, including through welfare advice organisations and local carers centres.

We understand that carers who are receiving Universal Credit with the Carer Element who do not receive Carer’s Allowance are likely to be better off if they apply for and receive Scottish Carer's Assistance once available, due to the extra support provided by Carer’s Allowance Supplement and from Carer's Additional Person Payment in future. While we will work to ensure that our communications, engagement and promotion of Scottish Carer's Assistance is clear on the interactions with Universal Credit and the potential benefits, and will encourage carers to apply for Scottish Carer's Assistance where it will benefit them and maximise their income, we do not have access to data on Universal Credit Carer Element recipients that would enable us to contact these carers directly. Once Scottish Carer's Assistance has launched we will continue to monitor take-up of the benefit and consider our approach to maximising this.

We are carrying out a Fairer Scotland Duty assessment on Scottish Carer's Assistance to accompany the regulations and alongside the full range of impact assessments – an Equality Impact Assessment, Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment, Island Communities Impact Assessment, and Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment. We published initial information on each of these assessments with our Scottish Carer's Assistance consultation and invited feedback on these areas from the public and stakeholders as part of the consultation and through ongoing discussions with our Carer Benefits Advisory Group. We have also presented more detailed information on the human rights and equalities approach we are taking to Scottish Carer's Assistance to this Group in June 2022.

Impact assessments are an ongoing process and we will continue to develop our understanding of the impacts of Scottish Carer's Assistance on inequalities and consider how the changes we are looking at in terms of policy and process can reduce inequalities of outcome, including as we consider how and when we may be able to make eligibility changes in future.

Changes to Carer’s Assistance

The below response is in regards to Recommendations 27-33.

We appreciate the Group’s advice on these points, along with the earlier advice on Scottish Carer's Assistance. We are considering these points, along with the response to the consultation which closed earlier last year on Scottish Carer's Assistance and will respond in detail to these, and the Group’s earlier recommendations, once this work is complete.

Full integration of services and advice

The below response is in regards to Recommendations 34-38.

The Scottish Government, together with Social Security Scotland, is committed to ensuring our social security system is simplified, compassionate and treats everyone with dignity, fairness and respect, and to ensuring families are supported to access all of the support to which they are entitled. As part of this it is essential that it is as straightforward as possible for people to access and engage with Social Security Scotland and that we provide as holistic a service as possible to them. We appreciate DACBEAG’s input and recommendations on this area that have been set out across several advice documents.

Social Security Scotland provides comprehensive information on devolved forms of assistance through a wide range of channels and accessible formats. Social Security Scotland is able to signpost to appropriate reserved benefits, for example, benefits such as Universal Credit, where receipt is a prerequisite for entitlement to several devolved payments such as Scottish Child Payment. It is beyond the scope and capacity of Social Security Scotland to become a holistic provider of advice. However, the Scottish Government fund a range of services which Social Security Scotland clients can access for advice on all available entitlements and support, including Citizens Advice Scotland and our Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships, which are projected to be live in 180 GP practices once fully rolled out this Spring.

Social Security Scotland currently also signposts clients via our Client Advisors and Local Delivery teams to local services for further support. Additionally, the Scottish Government signposts to benefit eligibility calculators, via the mygov.scot website, to allow individuals to access information on other benefits they may be entitled to, including reserved benefits. Whilst the Scottish

Government and Social Security Scotland are fully supportive of the ‘no wrong door’ principle that the Group refers to, it is beyond the scope or competence of either to unilaterally effect the wider reform of the public and third sectors which would underpin a truly holistic approach in practice.

However, as part of our principle to continuously improve, the Scottish Government, alongside Social Security Scotland, are progressing our commitment to provide people with signposting or referrals to partner organisations, where their assistance could improve people’s financial circumstances or wellbeing. By developing effective signposting arrangements and referral pathways we will seek to improve our ability to deliver for our clients, minimising barriers to access and ensuring that the support available reaches those who need it most. To achieve this, a multi- disciplinary project team was established in July 2022 to explore options to develop robust signposting and referral arrangements with key advice providers and support organisations in Scotland.

Appropriate sharing of data and evidence across the systems that support Scotland’s population is an important aspect of this work and we are also working with key partners to explore data sharing arrangements and initiatives within legal duties to protect clients’ personal information.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the take-up of our devolved benefits and reaching those that are not currently accessing benefits they are eligible for. We are doing this in several ways, including the launch of our Social Security Advocacy Service in January 2022, and expanding our Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships, with an investment of £3.5 million over

3 three years, to place welfare rights advisors in up to 180 GP practices in Scotland’s most deprived areas. In addition, we understand that automation is a powerful tool in increasing the uptake of devolved benefits. We have already automated payment of Carer’s Allowance Supplement and Child Winter Heating Assistance, as well as automating payments of Best Start Grant Early Learning and School Age Payments to eligible families in receipt of Scottish Child Payment. As part of their work, the multi-disciplinary project team and working groups will be exploring the potential automation of further processes and payments across the social security system in order to minimise, as far as possible, any burden on clients or barriers to access.

The National Care Service (Scotland) Bill aims to bring together social care, social work and community health to strengthen health and social care integration.

Our vision is of a Scotland where people enjoy a high quality of life. To achieve this we must further develop our approach to safe, effective, integrated and person-centred health and social care support. We will continue integrating community health and social care and strengthen partnerships working with other services and agencies. The National Care Service will ensure that health, social work and social care support is integrated with other service, prioritising dignity and respect and taking account of individual circumstances to improve outcomes for people.

Other models of social security

The below response is in regards to Recommendations 39-42.

The Scottish Government has undertaken research on international models of disability assistance with comparable social security systems to Scotland and the UK. We will continue to take an evidence-based approach to the continuous improvement of disability assistance to ensure that we meet the needs of disabled people as best we can.

We remain committed to ensuring that disabled people should receive the payments that they are entitled to. If we were to consider making changes to the devolved social security system in the future, any changes would be subject to rigorous analysis and impact assessments. We also remain committed to reducing inequalities in accordance with the principles set out in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

Our work towards a Minimum Income Guarantee is well underway. As noted above, this work is being led by a Steering Group which is made up of a cross-party Strategy Group and an Expert Group with representation from academia, trade unions, public and third sector including several of the current DACBEAG members. Each member of the Expert Group brings a wealth of experience from their organisation that will help us consider a wide range of factors as we explore the design of a Minimum Income Guarantee.

The Steering Group recognise that housing support and indeed wider services will be key to realising the ambition of this policy.

We have commissioned a range of research to inform the Expert Groups consideration of a Minimum Income Guarantee in Scotland. As noted above, progress will be set out in an interim report to be published soon.

Future changes

The below response is in regards to Recommendations 43-46.

The power to suspend may only be used in a narrow range of circumstances under the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. The choice to maintain a narrow scope was informed by close engagement with stakeholders, with a number of safeguards built into the process.

We are committed to applying suspensions in a fair and transparent way and Social Security Scotland staff monitor the use of suspensions. We will give further consideration as to how we can meaningfully report on the use of the power to suspend payments.

Social Security Scotland will continue to take a user centred approach to design and continuous improvement utilising User Centred Design resource, including User Researchers within Chief Digital Office. National Engagement and Local Delivery Teams have excellent links with external stakeholders and clients with established mechanisms for gathering feedback. The Client Survey goes out to everyone who has applied for or received a payment. This, along with data from primary research with clients, colleagues and partner organisations, and official statistics, are included in the Charter Measurement Framework on an annual basis. Findings from all of these sources are shared with relevant teams across Social Security Scotland and the Scottish Government, to inform decision making. A programme of bespoke research with our Client Panels also informs improvement activity.