Social Security Experience Panels: annual report 2019

Introduction

The Scottish Government is becoming responsible for some of the benefits previously delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). As part of the work to prepare for this change, in the Summer 2017 the Scottish Government set up the Social Security Experience Panels.

The Experience Panels are made up of people who have experience of at least one of the benefits that are coming to Scotland. The Scottish Government works with panel members to inform key decisions in the design of social security in Scotland. This is the second annual report for the Experience Panels programme of research. It aims to feed back to panel members and others interested in the work about what has been achieved this year and what is planned for 2020.

2019 has been our second full year of running research with panel members. We have published a large number of reports. We have also undertaken increasingly detailed research with panel members, informing a wide range of decisions about how Social Security Scotland will work.

We reopened recruitment this year to replace panel members who have left or who we have lost touch with. We have welcomed 536 new panel members to the Experience Panels.

We have spent more time working with panel members to test individual components of the service (such as application forms) with panel members. This helps to ensure the service is easy to use and accessible to all.

Finally, we have thought more about how the Experience Panels research links to doing research with Social Security Scotland’s own clients with 7 benefits now live. We have also spent more time sharing our findings and approach with others in the Scottish Government and beyond.

This report will give more detail on all of these points.