Adult Disability Payment (ADP) is extra money paid to help people with a disability or long-term health condition.
It replaces Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in Scotland.
The Scottish Government aims to use the new benefit to provide support to more than 510,000 disabled people by 2025.
Social Security Scotland – the agency delivering Adult Disability Payment – has been talking about its work to speed up processing times for the benefit.
The agency has also flagged up opportunities for people to have their say on Adult Disability Payment.
The consultation will focus on the eligibility criteria for the mobility component of ADP. (You may quality for this element if you need help with planning and following a journey, or moving around.)
A spokesperson said: “No two applications for disability benefits are the same, and some can be more complex than others.
“That means the time it takes to make a decision on an application can vary. At the moment, some decisions are taking longer than we would like.
“The majority of people will receive a decision within four months, although processing times vary from a few weeks to six months in a small proportion of very complex cases.
“When decisions are taking a long time, this is largely because people have asked us to gather supporting information on their behalf. It takes time to collect the information, but allows robust decision-making. If someone is eligible, we will always calculate the payment from the date that the person first applied.
“Work is underway to speed up processing times including working with the groups and organisations who most often provide us with supporting information to make the process easier. We are also urging those who can, to provide supporting information to us.”
A public consultation is now underway into the eligibility criteria for the mobility component of Adult Disability Payment. It closes on 25 April 2023.
This is ahead of an independent review, due to start later in 2023.
You can find out more about the consultation and give your views.
You can also attend engagement events.
Read the Scottish Government press release.
Please note that places at the events are limited. However, the Scottish Government is keen to obtain a “broad range” of views.
Findings from this consultation will be independently analysed and published. The analysis will be passed to the independent review to consider later this year.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
