Estimating the impact of the new definition of terminal illness for disability assistance in Scotland: research

Background

If an individual has a terminal illness their application for Disability Assistance can be processed under "special rules". This will allow them to access the disability benefit faster, receive the highest rate of award, and removes the need to have had the health condition for any length of time. To qualify due to terminal illness an individual will require a medical practitioner to complete the Benefits Assessment Under Special Rules in Scotland (BASRiS) form. Currently, under the UK rules for disability benefits, medical practitioners use the DS 1500 form.

The DS 1500 form applies to the three current disability benefits; Child Disability Living Allowance (child DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Attendance Allowance (AA). These benefits will be replaced by Child Disability Payment (CDP), Adult Disability Payment (ADP) and Pension Age Disability Payment (PADP) respectively, under which the BASRiS form will apply.

In the current UK DWP Social Security legislation, a person is deemed terminally ill if they suffer from 'a progressive disease and their death as a consequence of that disease can be reasonably expected within six months'. In Scotland, under the Social Security (Scotland) 2018 Act, a person will be deemed to have a terminal illness if it is the clinical judgement of an appropriate healthcare professional that they have a progressive disease which can reasonably be expected to cause their death.

To meet this definition of terminal illness for benefit eligibility the individual should have an illness:

• that is advanced and progressive or with risk of sudden death, and;
• that is not amenable to curative treatment, or treatment is refused or declined by the patient for any reason, and;
• that is leading to an increased need for additional care and support.

As this definition does not include the 6 month time limit it is possible that more people will be eligible under BASRiS rules than DS1500, and that the people who are eligible under BASRiS could receive disability benefits due to terminal illness for longer than if they'd received it under the DS1500 rules. This paper sets out the potential scale of these changes to the number of people successfully applying for Disability Assistance due to terminal illness and the number of people receiving Disability Assistance due to terminal illness at any one time.