Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment: call for evidence

What this call for evidence is about

The purpose of this call for evidence is to gather evidence from all interested parties to inform recommendations in relation to the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment. This call for evidence is primarily intended for organisations, although anyone can respond.

A separate consultation mostly for people with lived and living experience of accessing – or trying to access – Adult Disability Payment is also available. However, we also welcome views from people who work with or on behalf of disabled people as part of the consultation.

The call for evidence asks wider questions relating to Adult Disability Payment which will help to inform the Chair's recommendations. It will also provide an opportunity for specific feedback in relation to the areas identified in the Terms of Reference as being specific focus for the review.

This call for evidence is divided into the following sections:

1. Factors affecting take-up of Adult Disability Payment

2. Pre-application support for Adult Disability Payment applications

3. Processing times for Adult Disability Payment applications

4. Decisions, re-determinations and appeals

5. Informing about a change of circumstances

6. Review periods

7. Other considerations

We are interested in your comments and ideas so there is space left at the end for you to provide these. If you use the box at the end of the questionnaire, indicate to which of the sections your comments refer.

You can complete as many of the questions as you like in each of the seven sections, or you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

What this call for evidence does not consider

We recognise that gathering supporting information for an application for Adult Disability Payment is a key issue for many people. An evaluation of supporting information was undertaken by the Scottish Government as part of its disability benefits evaluation strategy.^[5] The supporting information evaluation gathered the views of stakeholders and was published by the Scottish Government in September 2023. The Independent Review will use these findings, which is why no specific questions on supporting information have been included in this call for evidence.

The call for evidence does not ask questions related to the eligibility criteria or fluctuating conditions for Adult Disability Payment. We ask questions about the eligibility criteria in the consultation. You may choose to respond to that in addition to the call for evidence, as you do not need to respond to every question. The findings from both will be considered as part of the independent review.

What do we mean by evidence?

Evidence can take many forms and your submission is not limited to evidence published academically. This could include but is not necessarily limited to qualitative or quantitative research generated from work with people who have experience of Adult Disability Payment, as well as findings from statistical analyses and policy impact evaluations. Submissions of evidence from within or outside Scotland originating from the public, private, or third sectors are all welcome. However, we would particularly value responses that:

• provide complete references to the underlying evidence supporting the responses to the questions that follow
• prioritise evidence that is relevant to the questions being asked
• describe evidence gaps, or what doesn’t work, in addition to documenting what we know
• consider whether potential responses to the issue in question differ by location or context (e.g. urban/rural contrasts)
• consider whether the issue has different impacts on seldom-heard voices, such as mobile communities
• include evidence from systematic reviews, or otherwise synthesised results from a body of literature in addition to isolated single studies
• include scenario and forecasting studies
• consider and comment on the quality of the evidence being cited, including the sample sizes used and the presence of any control group or follow-up study.

References to Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

This call for evidence talks about PIP in some places because many people will be familiar with PIP and may be less familiar with Adult Disability Payment. Where we do talk about PIP, this is to highlight what we understand are the differences between PIP and Adult Disability Payment. We are particularly interested to see evidence about people with experience of both benefits.