Social Security Experience Panels - Scottish Carer's Assistance: main report

Background and methodology

Background

Unpaid carers provide vital support to the people they care for. The Scottish Government estimates unpaid care is currently saving Scotland £12.8 billion per year in social care costs, plus £320 million in health care costs – a total saving of £13.1 billion per year^[2]. Carer's Allowance (CA), which is paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), provides financial support to unpaid carers who meet certain criteria and provide 35 hours or more of care a week for people receiving certain disability benefits.

Carer's Allowance will be replaced with a new benefit for carers in Scotland. The current working title for this benefit Scottish Carer's Assistance (SCA) and it will be provided by Social Security Scotland (SSS). The current Carer's Allowance benefit is one of the most complex benefits of those that are being transferred from DWP to Social Security Scotland. This is because of its links with other benefits, including benefits which will still be provided by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Scottish Carer's Assistance will build on the progress already made to support carers in Scotland. The Scottish Government has already increased the value of Carer's Allowance through the Carer's Allowance Supplement and it has introduced a new benefit for carers aged 16-18, the Young Carer Grant.

The Scottish Government has been working with carers and the organisations who support them to develop proposals for this new benefit^[3]. These proposals have also been informed by Panel members in previous Experience Panels research.

The aim of this research was to understand the views of Experience Panel members on proposals and plans on how Scottish Carer's Assistance could be different from Carer's Allowance.

Methodology

The Scottish Government is becoming responsible for some of the benefits previously delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions. As part of the work to prepare for this change, the Scottish Government set up the Social Security Experience Panels. Panel members are people from across Scotland who have recent experience of at least one of the benefits coming to Scotland.

Over 2,400 people registered as Experience Panel members when it launched in 2017. The Scottish Government is working with Experience Panel members to design a new social security system that works for the people of Scotland, based on the principles of dignity, fairness and respect.

Panel members were invited to take part in a survey and an interview to give their views on proposals on:

• How Scottish Carer's Assistance should work when it is first introduced
• Extra payments for carers in Scotland
• Further changes to be made to Scottish Carer's Assistance in the future

Research took place in two stages between March and July 2022. The first stage involved a survey carried out between March and April and the second stage comprised of follow-up interviews which took place in June and July. Participation in research with Experience Panel members is optional.

The data have been analysed by Scottish Government researchers. It is important to note, that the results presented in this report only represent the views of Panel members who took part in the project. Assumptions cannot be drawn on the wider applicability of these findings to Panel members as a whole or for those with experience of the social security system in general.

Survey

Members of the Experience Panels who told us they had experience of Carer's Allowance, Carer's Allowance Supplement and Young Carer Grant were identified. Panel members who had told us in previous research that they were carers were also identified. Taken together, a total of 1,026 members were invited to take part in this survey. 242 panel members completed the survey, representing a response rate of 24 per cent.

Throughout the report, Panel members who completed the survey are referred to as survey respondents^[4].

Results shown in the report exclude any respondents who were either filtered out of the question or who left the response blank. Results presented in figures or tables are intended to show proportions between different answer options. The number of respondents answering a question is shown in the title of the table as (n).

Quotations are taken from comments left by respondents in open-text questions. Minor edits to spelling and grammar were made as appropriate.

Who took part in the survey

Where possible, information from the survey was matched to demographic information supplied previously by panel members. Linking was not possible where there was missing or unclear information. The following demographic information is included to give context to the findings of this report. A full breakdown is provided in Annex A.

Two thirds of survey respondents (66 per cent) identified as female, woman or girl. The majority of survey respondents (86 per cent) said they were heterosexual or straight and 4 per cent said they were gay or lesbian. A small number of respondents (2 per cent) identified as transgender.

Almost a half (47 per cent) were aged 45 to 59 and almost two fifths (39 per cent) were aged 60 to 79. A small number of survey respondents (2 per cent) were from a minority ethnic group. Over three quarters (77 per cent) lived in an urban area.

Over half of respondents (55 per cent) said they had no religion or belief, almost one fifth (19 per cent) said they belonged to the Church of Scotland and over one tenth (12 per cent) said that they were Roman Catholic.

Concerning household composition, over two fifths (43 per cent) live in a household with two adults and fewer than one third (30 per cent) live in a household with only one adult. A majority (77 per cent) live in a household with no children and 15 per cent live in a household with one child.

Almost four fifths (78 per cent) said they had a disability or long-term condition. Three fifths (60 per cent) said they had another long-term health condition, over half (53 per cent) said they had chronic pain lasting at least three months and half or survey respondents said they had a physical disability.

Around three quarters (76 per cent) cared for an adult or adults with long-term physical/ mental ill-health/ a disability. Around one quarter (26 per cent) cared for a child or children with long-term physical/ mental ill-health/ a disability and over a third (34 per cent) cared for an adult or adults who needs support due to old age.

Further demographic information can be found at Annex A.

Interviews

At the end of the survey, respondents were asked if they would be interested in taking part in a follow up interview. A purposive sampling approach based on the demographic characteristics presented above was used to select a diverse group of carers to invite to the interviews. In total, 15 qualitative semi-structured interviews with 16 participants^[5] were conducted between June and July.

The interviews aimed to gather views on proposals and plans covered in the survey in more detail. Interview participants were also asked about a few themes on Scottish Carer's Assistance which were not covered in the survey.

Quotations from the interviews are used to illustrate the findings discussed in the report. Edits to improve readability were made as appropriate. Participants who took part in an interview are referred to as interview participants throughout the report^[6].

About the report

The report covers a wide range of themes that are relevant to the future development of Scottish Carer's Assistance policy. It is divided into four thematic chapters, which are in line with the themes addressed in the Scottish Carer's Assistance Consultation. These are:

1. Scottish Carer's Assistance when it is first introduced. This chapter includes their views on support that would be helpful for carers to link to SCA, timescales for re-determinations, and their views on changing SCA payments to £0 instead of suspending or ending the award. It also includes Panel members' thoughts on ending a SCA award when it has been £0 for six months in a row, and on Short-Term Assistance.

2. Extra payments for carers in Scotland. This chapter includes Panel members' views on how Carer's Allowance Supplement should be paid in the future, and their thoughts on a new payment currently called Carer's Additional Person Payment.

3. Further changes to Scottish Carer's Assistance in the future. This chapter gathers views from Panel members on removing education limits from Scottish Carer's Assistance, combining hours spent caring for two people and their feedback on paying SCA for 12 weeks in specific circumstances. It also includes members' views on increasing the amount carers can earn and still get Scottish Carer's Assistance, getting SCA payments from some weeks after earning over the limit and their thoughts on a payment for long-term carers.

4. Further views on the Scottish Carer's Assistance proposals. This chapter explores the general views of panel members on the SCA proposals and their effects on different groups, and on rural and island communities. It also gathers the general views of Panel members on caring work and payments for carers.

Each chapter summarises the key themes among the responses on that topic. Because of this, there is some overlap in the findings where respondents and participants have brought up similar issues or concerns in relation to more than one question. We have not sought to remove this duplication so that the reader can select the relevant chapter for their interests without having to read the whole report in depth.

The report also includes two thematic annexes. Annex B explores the experiences of Panel members with carer benefits and Annex C looks at the experiences of members on paid employment and caring.