Social Security Experience Panels: award duration and automatic entitlement

Background and research methods

The Scottish Government are becoming responsible for some of the benefits previously delivered by the DWP. As part of the work to prepare for this change, the Scottish Government set up the Social Security Experience Panels. The Experience Panels are made up of over 2,400 people across Scotland who have recent experience of claiming at least one of the benefits that will be devolved to Scotland.

The Scottish Government is working with Experience Panel members to design a new social security system that works for the people of Scotland. Part of this work includes the creation of Social Security Scotland – Scotland's new social security agency.

As part of the formation of Social Security Scotland, researchers from the Scottish Government have met with Experience Panel members to hear their thoughts and views on automatic entitlement, light touch reviews and award duration.

The research involved a survey and four focus groups. It focused on two areas:

• the ways in which benefits are awarded to people with medical conditions that are unlikely to change or improve over time (award duration and automatic entitlement); and
• what a potential alternative to reassessments, 'light touch reviews' could look like.

All participants were recruited through the Scottish Government's Social Security Experience Panels. The Social Security Experiences Panels are a longitudinal research project. The panels are made up of volunteers from the Scottish population who have lived experience of benefits. As such, the results of the survey should be regarded as being reflective of the experiences and views of the respondents only and are not indicative or representative of the wider Scottish population.

Survey Method

1,425 Experience Panel members with experience of claiming a disability benefit for themselves or someone they care for were invited to take part in this survey. It was called 'Help us understand who should be automatically entitled to disability benefits and how long disability benefit awards should last'.

241 Experience Panel members out of the 1,425 completed the survey (seventeen per cent).

Panel members were given the option to complete the survey online, returning a paper form or by calling the Experience Panels helpline and completing the survey over the phone.

The information was added to the previous information from 'About Your Benefits and You' (Scottish Government, 2017^[2]) and 'Social Security Experience Panels: Who is in the panels and their experiences so far' (Scottish Government, 2018^[3]). The data collected in these surveys was linked to the information supplied by participants as part of the longitudinal dataset for this project. Demographic information was not held for all participants. The figures in tables one to fix include demographic data of only those participants whose records could be matched.

Eight of out ten participants (80 per cent) were aged 45 or over, and just under three in ten (27 per cent) were aged between 60 -79.

Table 1: Age of survey participants (n=241)

Age	%
16 – 24	--
25 – 44	15
45 – 59	53
60 – 79	27
Prefer not to say	--
Total	95

Just over six in ten participants identified as 'woman or girl' (63 per cent) and three in ten identified as 'man or boy' (32 per cent).

Table 2: Gender of survey participants (n=241)

Gender	%
Man or boy	32
Woman or girl	63
Total	95

Almost nine in ten survey participants had a disability at the time of the survey (87 per cent):

Table 3: Disability status of survey participants (n=226)

Disability Status	%
Disabled	87
Not Disabled	13
Total	100

Just over half of survey participants cared for a friend, relative or partner at the time of the survey (51 per cent):

Table 4: Care status of participants (n=226)

Care Status	%
Carer	51
Not Carer	47
Prefer not to say	1
Total	99

Just over nine in ten survey participants (94 per cent) were in receipt of a benefit at the time of the survey:

Table 5: Participants who are in receipt of a benefit award (n=241)

Response	%
In receipt of benefit award	94
Not in receipt of benefit award	6
Total	100

Over a third of survey participants had an indefinite benefit award (37 per cent)
and just under two in ten had an award of more than four years (18 per cent).
One in a hundred participants (1 per cent) had an award duration of less than twelve months.

Table 6: Participants who are in receipt of a benefit award (n=235)

Award Duration	%
Less than 12 months	1
Between 1 and 2 years	11
Between 2 and 3 years	21
Between 3 and 4 years	12
More than 4 years	18
Indefinitely	37
Total	100

All participants had experience of claiming or helping someone to claim Disability Living Allowance (100 per cent) and over seven in ten (71 per cent) had experience with Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

Just over one in five participants had experience with Attendance Allowance (22 per cent), Severe Disablement Allowance (22 per cent) while less than one in ten (8 per cent) had experience of Industrial Injuries Disability Benefit (IIDB).

Table 7: Participants who have experience of each disability benefit (n=229)

Benefit	%
Disability Living Allowance	100
Personal Independence Payment	71
Attendance Allowance	22
Severe Disablement Allowance	22
Industrial Injuries Disability Benefit	8

More detailed demographic information on the Experience Panels as a whole can be found in the 'Who is in the panels and their experiences so far' report (Scottish Government, 2018^[4]).

Focus Groups

Focus groups on automatic entitlement and award duration were carried out in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Most focus group attendees who took part in the focus groups had experience of claiming a disability benefit.

Thirteen participants took part across four 90 minute focus groups. Post-its and flipcharts were used to facilitate discussion with participants. A Scottish Government staff member acted as a note-taker in each session. In the interest of maintaining privacy, the focus groups were not recorded. The analysis is based on the notes taken at each group.

This report presents analysis from the survey outlined above and the focus groups.