Scottish Carer's Assistance: consultation

Section 1: Scottish Carer's Assistance from launch

When our new benefit first launches – when it opens for new people to apply – we will deliver an improved service, that we will design with carers so it meets their needs. We are also working to make links with other services so carers applying for Scottish Carer's Assistance can find out about wider support which could help them.

In the beginning, the rules about who is entitled to the benefit will be similar to Carer's Allowance, to protect carers in Scotland who are already getting Carer's Allowance. But we're proposing that our benefit will be different in a number of important ways. This would include having improved processes for carers who want to challenge a benefit decision, and clear times for when they can expect this to be done. We will also provide support to carers when the person they care for is challenging a change to their disability benefits. Our processes are designed to treat people with dignity and respect, for example if we needed to stop payments temporarily or ask for benefits back that have been overpaid, we will look at whether this will cause hardship for carers before we do this.

More information is provided below on how Scottish Carer's Assistance will work from launch, with questions about our proposals.

A service that works well for carers

Scottish Carer's Assistance will be provided by Social Security Scotland, the agency which was established in 2018 to pay Scottish benefits. It already delivers 11 benefits including the Best Start Grants, Scottish Child Payment, Child Disability Payment and Carer's Allowance Supplement, and will start rolling out Adult Disability Payment (the Scottish replacement for Personal Independence Payment) from March. Social Security Scotland has two main centres, in Dundee and Glasgow, and teams in every local authority area – known as Social Security Scotland Local Delivery. Social Security Scotland is committed to treating people with dignity, fairness and respect, and more about the service people can expect is set out in Our Charter^[48].

When we launch Scottish Carer's Assistance, the service we provide will be designed based on user research, and ongoing user engagement, so that it meets carers' needs. We also want to make sure that carers using the service are told about other support that is available to them – other social security benefits and wider services – and that they are aware of our vision to provide support for their wellbeing and to allow for a life of their own outside of caring. With the development of Social Security Scotland, we have opportunities to link Scottish Carer's Assistance into wider carer support – for example through the work of the Local Delivery service. Local Delivery teams offer in person support across the country. Advisers can answer questions about benefits and help with filling out applications – advice is available in person, on the phone or by video call. Social Security Scotland is also committed to 'inclusive communication' – this means designing services so that as many people as possible understand what we do, and can get in touch with us in the way they want to.

We have taken feedback on how Scottish Carer's Assistance could link better with wider services, and provide information for carers on wider support, from carers, organisations who support carers, and people working in other areas of government. We know from this that there are some areas, and points in carers' lives, where links to other services could be particularly useful. For example, at the start of a caring role, when young carers are moving on from young carer services and support to adult services, or when a caring role comes to an end, especially if this is due to the loss of the cared for person. We have also heard that links to information and advice on education, training and work would help carers who would like to and are able to take part in these opportunities.

We are working to identify ways we can link up with other support from launch. For example, providing on-screen information about wider support as part of the application process, as well as clear information about other benefits relevant to carers, so that carers are better informed about their entitlements. Similar information could be included in the text of award letters, or in guidance provided by Social Security Scotland's Local Delivery teams.

After launch, we will continue to improve how we deliver the benefit, by continuing to work directly with carers and support organisations to understand how well the system is working and identify any changes needed.

We will also work with carers and carer support organisations throughout the design process for Scottish Carer's Assistance, to ensure the benefit and our services work well for all those who will use it. For example, we know from feedback we have already had from carers on our Carer's Allowance Supplement communications that they appreciate the use of clear language, and that we acknowledge the importance of their role as carers.

Question 1: Please give us your views on how Scottish Carer's Assistance services could be designed to suit carers' needs (For example, in terms of how carers can apply for benefits, report changes that may affect their benefits, get payments, or get information or notifications about their benefits).

Question 2: Please give us your views on support that Scottish Carer's Assistance could link to that would be helpful for carers.

Who will be eligible for Scottish Carer's Assistance when it launches

When we first open our Scottish Carer's Assistance benefit for new applications, we want to make sure that it doesn't cause problems for people in Scotland who are already getting Carer's Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions.

We need to be able to make sure carers will continue to get the right amount of support at the right time when their benefits transfer from Carer's Allowance to Scottish Carer's Assistance. This is one of our key principles for transferring benefits and something we know is really important to carers. We also need to make sure that we don't create a 'two-tier system' where people on Carer's Allowance in Scotland are treated differently from people getting Scottish Carer's Assistance.

This means that core eligibility criteria for the benefit will be the same as Carer's Allowance initially. Carers will need to be 16 or over, providing 35 hours or more of care a week for someone who is getting certain disability benefits, and not be in full-time education or earning more than £128 a week (this is the rate for 2021/22), after some deductions^[49]. Carers also wouldn't be able to get Scottish Carer's Assistance at the same time as other benefits which are paid for the same purpose, known as 'overlapping benefits'^[50].

Scottish Carer's Assistance – benefit rules

At the same time as making sure that Scottish Carer's Assistance eligibility is similar to Carer's Allowance, we also need to make sure key benefit rules fit with how other Scottish benefits work, including the disability benefits. This includes rules on where a carer is living (residence requirements) and what happens when a carer is unhappy with a decision made on their application (re-determinations and appeals). We have set out some key points on these areas below, with more information in Annex B. We will ask in particular about:

1. Rules about where carers are living

2. When a carer isn't happy with a decision

3. When payments need to stop temporarily to check entitlement or protect carers

4. Setting the value of Scottish Carer's Assistance awards to £0

5. Short-term assistance

1. Rules about where carers are living

Eligibility for Scottish Carer's Assistance will be based on where the carer lives, and not where the person they care for lives. Rules about where a carer needs to live to get this support will be different from Carer's Allowance as in the main, we are only able to provide support to people who are living in Scotland, or in some circumstances, who have strong links to Scotland.

How Carer's Allowance works

At the moment, the Department for Work and Pensions will pay Carer's Allowance to people who are normally living in England, Scotland or Wales. They also have to have been living there for at least two of the last three years – this is known as the 'past presence test'. To get support carers also can't be subject to immigration controls. Carers will also be able to get Carer's Allowance outside of the UK in some circumstances.

How Scottish Carer's Assistance will be different

Scottish Carer's Assistance rules about residence will be similar to the rules for Carer's Allowance, except that carers will need to be normally living in Scotland (see Annex B). But we are looking at how the 'past presence test' should work. At the moment this means people need to have been living in Scotland, England or Wales for two of the past three years. Following recent appeals against these rules, we have reduced the 'past presence test' which we will use for Child and Adult Disability Payments. Our aim would be to make sure carers and the people who they care for are treated in the same way.

If we were to use a different 'past presence test' for Scottish Carer's Assistance than the Department for Work and Pensions uses for Carer's Allowance, we would need to work with them to look at the impact of this. We would want to make sure that carers getting Scottish Carer's Assistance could still receive any extra amounts in their benefits that carers getting Carer's Allowance would get – for example Carer Premiums paid in Income Support.

Question 3: Do you agree or disagree with the proposed residency criteria for Scottish Carer's Assistance? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 4: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposed residency criteria for Scottish Carer's Assistance, or any other information you want to share on this question.

Question 5: Please give us your views on the 'past presence test' which should be used for Scottish Carer's Assistance.

2. When a carer isn't happy with a decision

Carers will have the right to ask for decisions on their eligibility for Scottish Carer's Assistance to be reviewed, through re-determinations and appeals. A re-determination is when a carer asks Social Security Scotland to look at a decision they have made again. A new team will look at the application, and any other information the carer wants to provide, and make a new decision^[51]. The carer can then appeal if they disagree with the decision made in the re-determination. The appeal will be considered by the Social Security Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland^[52] who will make a decision.

How Carer's Allowance works

At the moment, if a carer disagrees with a decision made by the Department for Work and Pensions, they can ask for the decision to be looked at again – this is called a 'mandatory reconsideration'. They need to do this within one month but no timescales are set out publicly for how long the Department for Work and Pensions needs to take to do this. Carers can also appeal if they disagree with the decision made after the mandatory reconsideration. They need to submit an appeal within one month of being told about this decision^[53].

How Scottish Carer's Assistance will be different

The processes for appealing decisions and the timescales for appeals against decisions about Scottish Carer's Assistance are already set by the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018^[54]. Carers have 31 days from a re-determination decision to apply for an appeal in most cases.

For re-determinations, we need to set the time limits for Scottish Carer's Assistance. We are proposing that carers should have 42 days from a decision to ask for a re-determination. We also propose that Social Security Scotland should have 56 days to carry out the re-determination following a request. Carers will still be able to submit a late request if they have a good reason for doing so. Carers can also apply for an appeal if the re-determination decision is not made on time.

While re-determinations for Scottish Carer's Assistance may not take as long as those for disability benefits, we felt carers should be given more time to request the re-determination, and that it would make things simpler if the timescales were the same as we have for disability assistance.

Question 6: Do you agree or disagree with the proposed re-determination timescales for Scottish Carer's Assistance? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 7: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposed re-determination timescales for Scottish Carer's Assistance, or any other information you want to share on this question.

3. When payments need to stop temporarily to check entitlement or protect carers

We're proposing that Scottish Carer's Assistance should work differently from Carer's Allowance in terms of when payments of the benefit may be stopped temporarily.

How Carer's Allowance works

The Department for Work and Pensions currently has powers to suspend payments of benefits in a wide range of circumstances, if there is an issue where benefit conditions may not be met. For example, powers can be used to stop payments if people don't meet work requirements for certain benefits. Support organisations have told us that they think these powers go too far. At the moment, if a qualifying disability payment is suspended so a cared for person stops receiving payments, Carer's Allowance payments for their carer will stop too. When the Department for Work and Pensions ends a suspension, payments will begin again.

How Scottish Carer's Assistance will be different

We plan to suspend payments (so that carers would not receive them for a period) in only a very small number of circumstances. This would be where suspension is necessary to prompt a carer to provide information which Social Security Scotland needs to check they are entitled to support, or in rare circumstances where Social Security Scotland pays Scottish Carer's Assistance to a third party on behalf of a carer and suspension is necessary to protect the carer's payments. For example, the third party may not be able to continue receiving payments or there may be a risk of financial abuse.

We also need to think about whether it will cause carers to have financial problems if we suspend payments, before we decide to do it. Carers would also be able to challenge a decision to suspend their payments if they disagree. When a suspension is ended, if a carer was entitled to payments during the suspension, they would get backdated payments for the full amount they were entitled to.

We are thinking about what should happen to a carer's Scottish Carer's Assistance payments when the disability benefits of the person they care for are suspended.

Question 8: Do you agree or disagree with the proposals on when payments of Scottish Carer's Assistance should be suspended? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 9: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposals on when payments of Scottish Carer's Assistance should be suspended, or any other information you want to share on this question.

Question 10: Please give us your views on what should happen to payments of Scottish Carer's Assistance when a cared for person's qualifying benefit is suspended.

4. Setting the value of Scottish Carer's Assistance awards to £0 instead of suspending or ending the award

We want to provide more stability for carers getting Scottish Carer's Assistance when there are periods where they aren't eligible for support. We can do this by setting their payments to £0 rather than ending their awards in certain situations.

How Carer's Allowance works

Currently a Carer's Allowance award would be reduced to £0 if a carer is receiving another 'overlapping benefit'^[55] at the same or a higher rate. This allows carers to still get some support which is linked to Carer's Allowance even if they don't get payments.

How Scottish Carer's Assistance will be different

We would continue to give carers getting 'overlapping benefits' a Scottish Carer's Assistance award of £0 to protect their access to other support.

We also plan to set Scottish Carer's Assistance awards to £0 for any week in which a cared for person's qualifying benefit award is set to £0. This would include, for example, when a cared for adult is in hospital for more than 28 days. This would be an improvement to the current system, where an award would end at this point, and would allow support for carers to be resumed more quickly and easily, with no need to re-apply.

In addition to this, we plan to set Scottish Carer's Assistance awards to £0 for any week in which a carer earns over the earnings limit. This would prevent overpayments where a carer has earnings which change often, but stop an award being ended when they are not eligible for support only temporarily. This is different to how Carer's Allowance works but will have the same effect.

We're proposing that after a carer's award had been set to £0 for six months in a row, we would then end the award. Carers would be able to request a re-determination of a decision to set their award to £0 and to appeal this decision if they don't agree with the outcome of the re-determination.

Question 11: Do you agree or disagree with the proposals for when an award of Scottish Carer's Assistance should be set to £0? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 12: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposals for when an award of Scottish Carer's Assistance should be set to £0, or any other information you want to share on this question.

5. Short-term assistance

Short-term assistance is a new form of assistance in the Scottish benefits system. It provides financial support for people while they challenge a decision to reduce or stop an ongoing payment of certain devolved benefits. This is to make sure people are not put off from challenging decisions by having to manage, for a period of time, with a lower income.

How Carer's Allowance works

At the moment, there is no short-term assistance available from the Department for Work and Pensions.

How Scottish Carer's Assistance will be different

Carers will be able to receive short-term assistance where they are challenging a decision to stop or reduce ongoing payments of Scottish Carer's Assistance. Short-term assistance is paid at a level which maintains the support the person was getting before the decision to stop or reduce their benefits.

For Scottish Carer's Assistance, it would not be paid where the decision was to set an award to £0 because the carer is in receipt of an overlapping benefit, is earning over the earnings threshold for a temporary period, or where the qualifying benefit of the person they care for is set to £0.

We do not expect many challenges as Scottish Carer's Assistance awards will not be reviewed in the same way as disability benefits and will be mainly paid at the same rate to everyone.

However, we know that carers face problems when the person they are caring for has their disability benefit removed or reduced – because the carer's benefits depend on the cared for person receiving support at a certain level. We are therefore recommending a change to allow carers to get support when the person they care for is challenging a decision to reduce or remove their benefits and is getting short-term assistance.

We propose to do this by treating short-term assistance as a qualifying benefit for Scottish Carer's Assistance. This appears to be the simplest way to protect payment of Scottish Carer's Assistance while the person they care for is supported by short-term assistance. It may mean linked support provided by the Department for Work and Pensions could still be paid to carers during challenges. However, we would need to work with the Department for Work and Pensions to look at the impacts of making this change, as Carer's Allowance wouldn't be paid in this situation. Carers, like the people they care for, would still face some gaps in support as short-term assistance is only paid during the re-determination and appeal processes.

We felt the alternative option of extending eligibility for short-term assistance would add too much complexity, and it would be less likely to allow carers to keep any support they get which is linked to their Scottish Carer's Assistance. We also considered a 'run on' of Scottish Carer's Assistance for twelve weeks after the cared for person's benefit is reduced or removed. However, this would not be targeted at people caring for someone challenging a decision and would not provide support for the whole time the decision was being challenged.

We are also proposing that any Scottish Carer's Assistance paid while a cared for person is receiving short-term assistance would not need to be paid back, in most cases, in the same way as the people being cared for would not be required to repay short-term assistance – even where a challenge was not successful. Repayment of short-term assistance and any linked Scottish Carer's Assistance may be required if it was found to be paid as a result of fraud.

Question 13: Do you agree or disagree with the proposal to pay Scottish Carer's Assistance to carers when the person they are caring for is receiving short-term assistance? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 14: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposals to pay Scottish Carer's Assistance to carers when the person they are caring for is receiving short-term assistance, or any other information you want to share on this question.

Question 15: Please give us any other views you want to share on the proposals for Scottish Carer's Assistance when it is first launched.