Publication - Consultation paper

Disability Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) 2020: draft regulations

Published: 7 February 2020
Directorate: Social Security Directorate
Topic: Children and families

Draft regulations setting out how we will use devolved powers to make meaningful changes to disability benefits for children and young people.

These Regulations are the product of significant engagement with people in Scotland with lived experience of the current social security system.

We are determined to ensure that our approach to social security meets the needs of the people that the Scottish social security system is intended to support.
2020

Background

The Regulations set out the detail of how we will use devolved powers to make meaningful changes to disability benefits for children and young people:

For children and young people the government will extend the upper age limit for assistance to the age of eighteen to minimise the impact on families during the transition from child to adult services.
The Scottish Government will provide Child Winter Heating Assistance worth £200 to families with the most seriously disabled children to help with fuel costs.
Children and young people who are eligible under terminal illness rules will be fast tracked. They will not require an assessment of their care and mobility needs, instead they will automatically receive the highest rates of the Assistance that they are entitled to.

Due to the impact on the Scottish Government, Social Security Scotland and all our public services of managing Scotland through the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic, we have had to take the extremely difficult decision to delay the launch of Scottish disability assistance. As soon as we are able to provide information about the new timescales for launching disability assistance we will do so.

As part of our engagement with stakeholders, the Scottish Government has decided that the devolved replacement for Disability Living Allowance for Children (DLAC) will be known as Child Disability Payment.

The Scottish Commission on Social Security

Copies of the draft Regulations have also been issued to the Scottish Commission on Social Security (SCoSS) for scrutiny as required by the duty placed on Scottish Ministers set out in section 97 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

SCoSS will provide a report in relation to the policy proposals set out in regulations which will be laid before parliament, alongside the draft regulations, in Spring 2020.