Social Security Experience Panels: annual report 2019

2019: The Research

Our research programme with panel members this year has covered a wide range of topics. This chapter will outline what we have covered. It will also give some examples of our findings and how they are being used to make decisions.

We report on our findings through full research reports and shorter, visual summaries which are designed to be as accessible as possible. These are sent to panel members as soon as they are published so they can see what they have said and how we have used the findings.

Our Reports

In 2019 we have published 37 reports and visual summaries, including on:

• Our Charter and the Charter measurement framework
• The design of specific low income and carer benefits and funds, such as Scottish Welfare Fund, Young Carer Grant, and Carers Allowance Supplement.
• The design of disability benefits, including experiences of Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance for Children and Personal Independence Payment assessments, and the names of the disability benefits.
• A range of different Social Security Scotland processes and policies, such as what staff and buildings should be like, how appointments and local delivery should work, the process for overpayments and the process for transferring cases from DWP to Social Security Scotland.

All reports can be found on our website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/social-security-experience-panels-index-of-publications/.

What we have covered

We are now at the mid-point of both the Experience Panels and the social security design process. Because of this, the type of questions we have asked has changed over time. In 2017 and 2018 we tended to ask general questions about people’s experiences and desires for the new system. This year our questions have become more specific, as the detail of the processes are developed.

This has led to some challenges where the topics we ask about are complicated or technical, and we need to produce questions that are in straightforward language. We have seen this in our work on Case Transfer. Some topics can also be quite sensitive, for example our work to inform how Social Security Scotland responds when clients display unacceptable actions. We chose a survey for this project to allow panel members to respond in their own time and completely anonymously if they wished.

We make sure that panel members have an opportunity to participate to inform all the key decisions across the design of social security, even and especially when topics are complex or sensitive. It is our role as researchers to ensure the questions we take to panel members are clear and relevant. We also ensure that every question we ask is designed to inform a specific decision that has yet to be made.

Social Security Scotland are now delivering a range of benefits^[1], and panel members and other citizens have been involved in shaping each of these:

• Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods
• Funeral Support Payment
• Young Carer Grant
• Carer’s Allowance Supplement

Beyond one final piece of work on Young Carer Grant, future research to inform continuous improvement of these payments will be done with clients who have received the benefit through Social Security Scotland.

Our work on disability benefits has increased this year as their design gathers pace. While in 2018 we undertook separate work on each disability benefit, this summer we undertook surveys and focus groups on things common to all three – evidence gathering and decision making. The findings from this work will be reported in the coming months.

Spotlight On: Case Transfer

One of our most complex and important topics this year was Case Transfer. For the recurring benefits that are moving from the DWP to Social Security Scotland, there will a process of moving existing recipients over to Social Security Scotland. Case transfer will be the first contact many people will have with Social Security Scotland.

We made sure that panel members had the chance to have their say on how case transfer will work. We had to work hard with the technical experts to develop questions on case transfer that:

• Used clear and non-technical language.
• Could inform the big decisions on case transfer.

We ran a survey in January looking at panel member’s views on the priorities when designing the case transfer process. We also asked about timing of case transfer.

“I would like to see the transfer done as fast as possible, but not if this means there could be issues with payments.”
Survey Respondent

Then in February we ran a second survey, and did individual and group interviews. We asked about:

• Communication - how and when panel members would want notified about their case transferring, and what information should be available from what sources.
• Overall process - what order cases should be transferred in, and what case information should come to Social Security Scotland from DWP.

“This work has been invaluable in the design of the case transfer process. We have ensured that insights from panel members on how they would like to experience case transfer form the basis of the technical decisions that need to be made.”
Case Transfer Strategy Lead