Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment: call for evidence
The Chair of the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment is seeking evidence from a variety of audiences about the first year of delivery. This will be used to help inform recommendations to ensure that Adult Disability Payment meets the needs of disabled people.
Section 3 – Processing times for Adult Disability Payment applications
The time it takes Social Security Scotland to decide about an application for Adult Disability Payment is called the processing time. The processing time can be affected by several factors, including:
- dealing with many applications
- gathering supporting information on behalf of clients
- the type of application (for example, those made under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness)
- applications which may require a consultation.
Some disabled people and stakeholders have expressed concerns about the processing times for applications for Adult Disability Payment.
Social Security Scotland says it is making improvements towards reducing processing times for applications. The current average processing time for Adult Disability Payment has dropped by almost 40% to 59 working days.
Whilst processing times are coming down, there is little evidence on whether they are having a different impact on some groups (e.g. seldom-heard groups) and not others.
The term 'seldom-heard groups' refers to under-represented people who face barriers in engaging with others. Examples of people who may be considered as having seldom-heard voices include:
- people experiencing homelessness
- people whose first language is not English
- people experiencing domestic violence
- people living in rural or island communities
- people with learning difficulties
- carers
- lone parents
- refugees and asylum seekers
- LGBTI people
- ethnic minority groups.
The following question asks about the effect of application processing times for Adult Disability Payment.
Question 7
Thinking about the time it takes to decide about whether someone gets Adult Disability Payment, do you have evidence whether this may have a different impact on some people than others, such as those from seldom-heard groups?
(a) Do you have evidence relating to what could be done to enhance peoples experience of waiting for a decision (if anything)?
Contact
Email: adpreview@gov.scot
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