Disability benefits: evaluation report

Introduction

The Scotland Act (2016) devolved some social security powers to the Scottish Government for the first time, including disability benefits. Social Security Scotland, the organisation responsible for the delivery of these benefits, was set up in 2018 and the programme of devolution is expected to be completed by 2025/26.

Given the priority of safe and secure transition during the devolution of disability benefits, it is intended that eligibility criteria, rates and components of all forms of Disability Assistance will initially remain largely the same as the current equivalent UK disability benefits until after transition is complete^[2]. This means that policy changes have largely been focussed on the way that entitlement and awards are assessed, the way that the benefit is delivered and the way that benefit delivery is experienced by applicants and recipients.

This evaluation focuses on the experiences of individuals who moved from Child Disability Payment (CDP) to Adult Disability Payment (ADP), and evaluates the extent to which the policy changes and commitments have been met.

This evaluation is part of a wider programme of work evaluating the policy impact of the devolution of disability benefits. These evaluations provide one source of evidence into how benefits are contributing to Social Security Scotland principles and wider Scottish Government objectives. In particular, the evaluations help to understand how effective policymaking processes are, and whether social security has been an investment in people, helped to reduce poverty, and brought value for money.

Policy Background

CDP helps cover the extra costs of caring for a disabled or terminally ill child or young person. Those who receive CDP may be entitled to ADP once they turn 16, but moving from CDP to ADP does not happen automatically and a new application for ADP must be made.

There are two main groups of people who go through this process:

• Young people who newly applied for CDP following its launch before the age of 16 (this group applied for CDP as a new applicant).
• Young people who were previously in receipt of Disability Living Allowance for Children (DLAC) and moved to CDP when they were at the age to move to adult services^[3] (this group have had their DLAC benefit transferred from the Department of Work and Pensions to CDP under Social Security Scotland).

Since disability benefits were devolved to Social Security Scotland from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Scottish Government has made policy changes to the journey from CDP to ADP to improve the process^[4]. Evidence gathered from stakeholders, including people with lived experience of applying for benefits, informed these policy commitments, which are:

• Individuals have the choice of whether to apply for ADP 13 weeks before their 16th birthday at the earliest, up until the day before their 18th birthday, in order to continue receiving CDP up until their first ADP payment.
• If individuals do not qualify for ADP, they can continue to receive CDP until the age of 18 or beyond, if waiting for a determination.
• Until 31 December 2023, individuals whose awards were transferred from the DWP’s DLAC close to their 18th birthday were able to stay in receipt of CDP until their 19th birthday or slightly beyond, in certain circumstances, to preserve the payment date.
• Individuals who apply for ADP before their 18th birthday will continue to receive payments for CDP until the earlier of; a determination on their ADP application or their 19th birthday.
• Individuals who are successful in their ADP application will continue to receive their payments seamlessly, meaning there is no need for CDP to end with a smaller payment covering part of a payment cycle before receiving ADP.^[5]
• Individuals who are entitled to a higher rate of ADP than the CDP they were previously entitled to will receive an additional single payment to ensure they are not disadvantaged compared with those who apply for ADP without previously receiving CDP.

These changes intend to make the application process for disabled people and their representatives planning to move from CDP to ADP as straightforward as possible. They aim to do this by reducing barriers to applying, improving communications, and ensuring disabled people and their representatives understand their options and what is involved in the application process.

Evaluation Aims

Policy impact evaluations involve the systematic assessment of a government policy’s design, implementation, and outcomes. In the context of social security, this involves understanding how a benefit or aspects of the benefit are being implemented and what effects it has had, for whom, and why, as well as whether its implementation and delivery are in line with the policy and meet the policy intent. The Scottish Government published its approach to evaluating the devolution of disability benefits in October 2021.

As a result, the main focus of initial evaluation activity will be assessing the impact of these policy changes on clients and client outcomes, rather than assessing the impact of disability benefits generally. Therefore, it is not designed to look at questions of adequacy of payments, for example.

This report evaluates the extent to which policy changes and commitments for CDP to ADP have been met.

The following research objectives were defined:

• To understand more about individuals’ experience of and views on the move from CDP to ADP.
• To understand the reasons why individuals applied for ADP earlier than they needed to instead of waiting until they were nearer 18.
• To understand the reasons why individuals applied for ADP later rather than applying for it when they were eligible to apply at 16.
• To understand any differences in experience of moving from CDP-ADP between those who transferred from DLAC to CDP and those who were only on CDP.
• To understand any differences in experience between successful vs. unsuccessful ADP applicants.
• To understand whether the policy changes were implemented as intended and what the relevant impacts of these were on individuals’ experiences of the CDP-ADP process.

In order to do this, evidence was gathered on individuals’ experiences and views on moving from CDP to ADP. This evidence has been analysed to provide greater understanding of how the policy changes are working in practice.

Report Structure

This report is structured around the short-, medium- and long-term outcomes of the CDP-ADP process described in the logic model. A description of the methodology underpinning the evaluation is provided in the next chapter. The report ends with an overview of the key findings alongside recommendations for policy and practice.