Disability Assistance for Older People (Scotland) Regulations 2024: Island Communities Impact Assessment

Executive summary

5. This Island Communities Impact Assessment has considered the potential effects of the draft Disability Assistance for Older People (Scotland) Regulations 2024 and how they impact on people living in island communities, as presented below in the ‘key findings’ section. The findings here are based on desk research, engagement with and feedback from disabled people with lived experience of the current social security system,^[3] and the Consultation on Disability Assistance.^[4] This ran between 5 March and 28 May 2019 and received 263 replies, of which 74 were from stakeholder organisations and 189 were from individuals.

6. This in turn led to targeted consultation with stakeholders representing people with protected characteristics which was undertaken during the consultation period in 2019, including disabled people from island and remote communities.

7. The Scottish Government is extending the Island Communities Impact Assessment by considering rurality and remoteness in the same spirit of the Act to gauge evidence as to whether the policy and regulations will impact rural/remote communities differently to other communities.

8. The assessment and its conclusions have been reviewed taking into account:

• the Scottish Government’s published case transfer principles
• two surveys regarding the case transfer process were sent out to Experience Panel members in January and February 2019. 404 and 559 responses were received respectively. A series of individual and group interviews were also conducted. Results from both surveys and the interviews were published in 2019.^[5],[6]

9. Scottish Ministers have concluded that there will not be any new unique impacts on remote and island communities as a result of the provisions in these regulations, nor will there be a specific financial impact for island communities in isolation resulting from the provisions. The positive impacts of Pension Age Disability Payment that have been identified are expected to have a similar impact on remote and island communities as with the rest of Scotland.