Social Security Experience Panels - Adult Disability Payment: mobility component eligibility criteria

Background and methodology

Background

Adult Disability Payment (ADP) is the twelfth payment now delivered by Social Security Scotland. It replaces the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) delivered Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in Scotland, and it will provide support to over 600,000 disabled people by 2027. Over the next couple of years, people in Scotland who are in receipt of PIP or working-age Disability Living Allowance (DLA) will be transferred to ADP.

Work to transfer people's payments from the UK Government to Social Security Scotland has started and it will take a few years before everyone has moved onto ADP. The Scottish Government are committed to the safe and secure transfer of people's payments from DWP to Social Security Scotland.

In designing this new payment, the Scottish Government has carefully listened to the views of disabled people, stakeholders, and the public, and have made several improvements that aim to provide disabled people with a more positive experience compared to PIP.

The eligibility rules for ADP have remained largely the same as under PIP as part of the Scottish Government's commitment to a safe and secure transition of the devolution of social security payments. This is to avoid having two sets of eligibility criteria before completing the transfer of people's payments from the UK Government to Social Security Scotland by 2025.

The Scottish Government is committed to an independent review of ADP. As part of this review, it is important to monitor the impact of any changes already made, and to gather the views and experiences of people who will be or already are using ADP. The Scottish Government has already conducted the Adult Disability Payment: Consultation on the Mobility Component as part of this work.

This report presents the findings from research conducted as part of the groundwork to prepare for the independent review of ADP. The aim of the research was to understand the views of Experience Panel members regarding the current eligibility criteria for mobility component of ADP. This included areas where panel members would like to see changes, and to gather suggestions as to how changes could be implemented.

The findings from this work will be passed to the independent review to consider. Given the need to prioritise the safe and secure transfer of social security payments, the Scottish Government does not intend to make changes to the eligibility criteria before the case transfer process is complete. Allowing the independent review the opportunity to consider all of the evidence holistically will ensure consistency and coherence in any recommendations for future improvements to the payment.

Methodology

The Scottish Government is now responsible for some of the benefits previously delivered by the UK Government DWP. As part of the work to prepare for this change, in 2017 the Scottish Government set up the Social Security Experience Panels. Over 2,400 people who have recent experience of receiving at least one of the benefits devolved to Scotland registered to take part in the Experience Panels when they were launched.

Experience Panels members were invited to take in part in a series of focus groups and interviews to give their views on changes to the eligibility criteria for the mobility component of ADP. The research took place concurrently to fieldwork on topics relevant to Scotland's social security system: enhanced administration and compensation recovery consultation.^[1]

For the research on ADP, panel members were asked for their thoughts on the eligibility criteria used in the decision-making process for mobility, planning and following journeys, and fluctuating conditions. They were also asked about their personal experiences of using the descriptors, their thoughts on any positive or negative aspects of the descriptors, and any ideas they had for how mobility needs could be considered differently.

The research took place in two stages. The first stage ran during October and November 2022, and consisted of interviews (in-person, by telephone and online), and in-person focus groups. These were the first in-person sessions held with panel members since the COVID-19 pandemic. These interviews and focus groups were supplemented by a second stage of research, consisting of an online survey conducted from May to June 2023.

The data have been analysed by Scottish Government researchers. Participation in research with Experience Panels members is optional and it is important to note that the findings contained in this report only represent the views of panel members who took part in the project. Assumptions cannot be drawn on the wider applicability of these findings to panel members as a whole or for those with experience of the social security system in general.

Interviews and focus groups

All active Experience Panels members were invited to take part in focus groups and interviews between October and November of 2022.

Overall, 34 participants took part in this first phase of the research. A total of three focus groups focusing on ADP^[2] took place in Glasgow, consisting of 19 participants overall. In addition, 15 interviews took place. 10 interviews were conducted remotely by telephone or video call and five interviews took place face-to-face during a research event in Inverness.

Quotations from the focus groups and interviews are used to illustrate the findings discussed in the report. Minor edits to improve readability were made as appropriate. Those who took part in an interview or focus group are referred to as participants throughout the report.

Participant demographics

Where possible, information from interview and focus group participants was matched to demographic information previously supplied by Experience Panels members. Linking was not possible where there was missing or unclear information. The following demographic information is included to give context to the findings of this report. Due to the small numbers involved in the interviews and focus groups, detailed demographic information is not given to preserve anonymity for those who took part.

More women than men took part in the interviews and focus groups. Almost two-thirds of participants identified as woman, girl or female, and around a third identified as man, boy or male. More than three-quarters said that they were heterosexual or straight. Almost a quarter were aged 25-44 years old, two fifths were aged 45-59 years old, and just over a third were aged 60-79 years old. Most participants lived in urban areas. The majority were white, with less than one in ten from a minority ethnic background.

Nearly two-thirds of participants cared for an adult or child with long term health condition, or an adult who needs support due to old age. The majority had a disability or a long-term health condition, and two-thirds had a physical disability.

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Following the first stage of research an initial analysis was carried out of the data gathered from the interviews and focus groups. On the basis of this analysis, a follow-up survey was created and distributed to 1,840 Experience Panels members. A total of 191 panel members completed the survey from May to June 2023. We refer to those who completed the survey as respondents throughout the report.

The survey asked respondents to provide feedback on the criteria for each element (Moving Around, Planning and Following Journeys, Fluctuating Conditions). Respondents were also asked whether they agreed or disagreed with some suggestions for how to improve the criteria or decision-making process that were made by panel members during interviews and focus groups.

It is important to note that, in discussing the suggestions made by other panel members, this research was not setting out or advocating for a preferred Scottish Government position or policy. These suggestions do not represent a specific commitment from the Scottish Government to implement any of the changes included, and were asked only as part of exploratory work to understand to what extent Experience Panels members agreed or disagreed with these ideas.

Survey respondent demographics

Where possible, information from survey respondents was matched to demographic information previously supplied by Experience Panels members. Linking was not possible where there was missing or unclear information. The following demographic information is included to give context to the findings of this report. A full breakdown is provided in Annex A.

Just over half of survey respondents identified as woman, girl or female, with around two-fifths identifying as man, boy or male. The majority were heterosexual or straight. Most respondents were white. Around one in ten were aged 25-44 years old, almost half were aged 45-59 years old, and around two-fifths were aged 60-79 years old. Just over three quarters lived in urban areas, with around a quarter living in rural areas.

Just over half of respondents cared for an adult or child with long term health condition, or an adult who needs support due to old age. Almost all had a disability or long-term health condition, and around three-quarters had a physical disability.

Background information on respondents' benefits

Survey respondents were asked to provide some basic background information on which benefits they receive and when their last assessment or consultation for a benefit was. More than nine in ten respondents (93 per cent) were receiving a benefit. Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) were currently in receipt of PIP, with one in ten (11 per cent) receiving ADP.

*Figures do not add to 100 per cent due to rounding and because some respondents received more than one benefit.

# - Result supressed as percentage is lower than 5.

Respondents were asked which benefit or benefits they had undergone assessments or consultations for. The majority (72 per cent) had been assessed or consulted for one benefit, and just over a quarter (28 per cent) for two benefits. Overall, more than four-fifths (82 per cent) of respondents had been assessed for PIP, two-fifths (41 per cent) for DLA. Only 5 per cent had undergone a consultation for ADP.

*Figures do not add to 100 per cent because some respondents had been assessed or consulted for more than one benefit.

Respondents were also asked how recently they had undergone an assessment or consultation for one of their benefits, and which benefit this was for. A fifth (21 per cent) of respondents had their most recent assessment or consultation in the last year. Almost half (49 per cent) had their most recent assessment or consultation between one and five years ago, and nearly a third (30 per cent) more than five years ago. More than three quarters (78 per cent) of respondents had their most recent assessment or consultation for PIP.

*Figures may not add to 100 per cent due to rounding.

*Figures may not add to 100 per cent due to rounding.