Social Security Experience Panels: award duration and automatic entitlement

Award Duration

Award duration refers to how long a client is awarded a benefit before their
eligibility for that benefit has to be reassessed. The Scottish Government has committed to introducing longer-term disability benefit awards for conditions that are unlikely to get better. Longer term awards will remove the need for unnecessary reassessments, which are often distressing and frustrating for people whose circumstances are unlikely to ever get better.

Participants were asked whether they thought an award duration of five years was more appropriate for people who had a condition that was unlikely to change or improve.

Just over four in ten survey participants (43 per cent) believed an award duration of five years was very appropriate or appropriate for people whose condition was unlikely to change or improve. Almost six in ten felt that it was not that appropriate or not appropriate at all (57 per cent).

Table 10: How appropriate is an award duration of five years for people whose medical condition is unlikely to change or improve? (n=241)

Some participants said they would prefer to be given an indefinite award for unchanging conditions. Focus group participants were more supportive of an award length of five years, believing it would give clients more time to prepare. Some participants noted the length of the appeals process made short awards more stressful, as they felt that by the time the process had been completed, they had to start preparing for their next application.

For a large number of participants, their views on award duration appeared to related to a desire to minimise the number of times they would need to be assessed.