Disability Assistance (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Wider context

51. The CRWIA should be read in conjunction with the other impact assessments conducted for the policy; the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment, the Island Communities Impact Assessment, the Equality Impact Assessment, and the Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment.

United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

52. The policy intent has been assessed against the relevant UNCRC articles:

53. Article 3 – Best Interests of the Child: Social Security Scotland has been developed around the principles of dignity, fairness and respect, transparent decision making, a person centred approach and rooted in the belief that social security is a human right. Both Child and Adult Disability Payment have these principles embedded and these amendments seek to enhance the way in which the assistance is delivered particularly for those moving between the benefits.

54. Article 6 – Life, Survival and Development: Child Disability Payment is intended to mitigate the additional costs disabled children and young people, and their families, incur in meeting their care and mobility needs. Mitigation of these additional costs provides children and young people with funding to access community resources, education and social activities, develop skills and new experiences and to have a good quality of life. By introducing these amendments, we are helping to ensure that children and young people have financial continuity with regard to timing of payments as they transition to Adult Disability Payment. This is particularly valuable at a time when young people are experiencing many other transitions which can be the source of a great deal of stress and anxiety for them and their families.

55. Article 12 – Respect for the Views of the Child: Both Child and Adult Disability Payment have been developed through consultation with, and input from, people with lived experience of the current social security system. This includes young people, their families and carers through our Social Security Experience Panels. These amendments were informed by those findings and our continued engagement with disabled people and stakeholder groups.

56. Article 23 – Children with a Disability: Child Disability Payment ensures that individuals who receive it are more likely to be able to live a full life, to be as independent as possible and to be able to engage in the community. By ensuring that some of the additional costs incurred as a result of additional care or mobility requirements are mitigated, eligible disabled young people will have the option to engage in more activities of their choosing. These amendments strengthen our commitment to support these young people by ensuring they have further stability through their transition to Adult Disability Payment. This will help to ease any additional anxiety during a potentially stressful period.

57. Article 26 – Social Security: These amendments will help ensure that young people moving from one form of assistance to another experience a smooth transition which includes receiving payments at the same time.

58. Article 27 – Adequate Standard of Living: The key policy intent of Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment is to provide individuals with payments to help mitigate the costs they incur as a result of a disability or long term condition. These amendments, therefore, aim to support that intent but ensuring that no individual is disadvantaged through their transition to Adult Disability Payment. This includes providing financial continuity with regard to timing of payments. By ensuring this continuity, young people in receipt of either payment will be able to use it to pay for things such as care, access to community resources, transport, social activities, and any other goods or services of their choosing.

Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) Wellbeing Indicators

59. The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 introduced a range of indicators used to measure children and young peoples' wellbeing. Our assessment of these amendments against this framework is:

60. Healthy: The amendments will help improve the health of disabled young people, by ensuring that they receive consistent financial support throughout potentially stressful periods of time, including during their transition to Adult Disability Payment, by contributing towards the additional costs of care and transport.

61. Achieving: By providing continuity of payment dates and ensuring no one is financially disadvantaged during the transition periods, the amendments will allow individuals to plan for their futures with more confidence and will directly contribute to enabling disabled individuals to engage in activities of their choosing including education, development opportunities and social activities.

62. Active: As outlined above, the amendments aim to ensure that no one is financially disadvantaged when moving between benefits and give young people confidence to continue to carry out their routines and activities throughout these periods. The provision of care or daily living and mobility components of both Child and Adult Disability Payment will provide funds to enable individuals, including young people, to engage in community activities of their choosing, ensuring that they have the option to choose to engage in community based activities and resources.

63. Respected: The principle of respect for the dignity of individuals is at the heart of the new Scottish social security system and specified in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. These amendments will further embed these principles, recognising that disabled individuals, including young people, have the right to engage in activities of their choosing and that we should facilitate this by ensuring that changes from one form of assistance to another does not impact on the timing of when receive the payment. The administration of these amendments has been designed to ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect and provided with a service that takes account of, and meets, their needs.

64. Responsible: Young people over the age of 16, who are able to manage their own affairs can receive Child Disability Payment directly rather than it being paid to a person (most often a parent) who is responsible for them and able to act on their behalf. This means in many cases young people moving from Child to Adult Disability Payment will be managing this aspect of their finances. The move to align the payment cycles when young people transfer from Child to Adult Disability Payment provides financial continuity which will support them to manage this transition. Whilst it is important that we enable young people to take responsibility for their affairs, we also acknowledge that this moving between benefits can be a stressful time. These amendments aim to smooth this transition further so individuals can take responsibility for their affairs with less anxiety.