Social Security Experience Panels: change of circumstances and debt repayment - report

Footnotes

1. Sometimes a client can experience a change in circumstances. For example, they may move house and change address. They might change their bank details. Or else, their personal circumstances can change e.g. their care or mobility needs (which could affect how much of a disability benefit they are entitled to.) Clients of Social Security Scotland are responsible for providing updates if they experience a change of circumstances to make sure that they are paid the right amount and not over or underpaid.

2. For more on the repayment process, see our separate reports on 'Fraud and Error' and 'Overpayments' on the Experience Panels' publications webpage https://www.gov.scot/collections/social-security-experience-panels-publications/

3. Focus groups were held in Aberdeen (2), Edinburgh (2), Fort William, Inverness, Glasgow, Irvine, Dundee, and Galashiels.

4. This report's section on 'Recovering debt' also contains a small selection of findings which were collected through a separate set of Experience Panels focus groups on 'Fraud and Error.' These focus groups were also conducted between August and September 2019. They asked panel members how Social Security Scotland should treat fraud and error, and recover debt from overpayments. The findings from the 'Fraud and Error' sessions that focus on recovering debt have been included in this report. This is so panels member's views on specific topics are not spread out unnecessarily across different publications. The full 'Fraud and Error' report can be found on the Experience Panels publications page at https://www.gov.scot/collections/social-security-experience-panels-publications

5. Scottish Government (2018). Social Security Experience Panels: Who is in the panels and their experiences so far. [Online] Available at: www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/10/3083

6. These findings build on previous research that we have done asking Experience Panel members about 'overpayments.' This can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/social-security-experience-panels-overpayments/pages/3/

7. In order to keep the topic of 'recovering debt' in one place, the findings provided from both 'Fraud and Error' and 'Change of Circumstances' focus groups have been included into this section of the report. The full report for 'Fraud and Error' is published separately on the Experience Panels publications page.