EQIA: Policy 8 - Carer's Allowance

In completing this EQIA you should be ensuring the needs of diverse groups of people are thought about when developing and implementing a new policy, procedure or service or a change to existing ones. Please consider the protected groups in line with the Equality Act 2010 and other diverse groups who may be impacted.

Name of Activity: Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) for Policy 8 - Carer's Allowance
Name of person completing EQIA: Linda Scott
Date EQIA completed: 15 July 2022

What type of activity are you planning?

Change to procedure: No
Event: No
New procedure: No
Office Plan/Budget: No
Policy: Yes
Project: No
Service: No
Other (free text):

1. Describe the main aim or purpose of what it is you are planning to do?

Review of policy and wording revision.

2. Who is likely to be affected by this policy, service or change?

Recipients and their partner / spouse.

3. Do you have enough information to know what the potential impact might be on diverse groups and what that might look like?

The protected characteristics to consider are: Age, Disability, Sex, Race, Religion or Belief, Gender Reassignment, Sexual Orientation, Marriage and Civil Partnership, Pregnancy and Maternity. It will also be helpful to consider these groups more widely in relation to their socio-economic status that includes such factors as educational attainment, occupation, income, wealth and social deprivation.

Please mark as Yes or No. If yes use the Comments column to describe what the potential impact is. What are your sources of evidence?

(Try to think about both positive and negative impacts. There are lots of sources of data to help answer this question. Diversity Networks, the Diversity Report or Diversity & Inclusion team may offer some useful information. Previously completed EQIAs may also offer answers to questions you may have).

Age: Yes
Comments: With an aging population of recipients, informal carers tend to be older people. The exact number who qualify or are already in receipt of Carer’s Allowance (CA) is undetermined however this type of income is identified as being essential to informal carers in order to sustain their role. By disregarding CA as income for a recipients partner or spouse, this increases and retains the recipients eligibility for an ILF award.
Sources: caring-about-older-carers.pdf and Carer's Allowance - Citizens Advice

Disability: Yes
Comments: By disregarding CA as income for a recipients partner or spouse, this increases and retains the recipients eligibility for an ILF award. It also means they are able to continue to have the same person providing them with informal assistance / support.
Sources: Carer's Allowance - Citizens Advice

Gender Reassignment: No
Comments:

Marriage and Civil Partnership: No
Comments:

Pregnancy and Maternity: No
Comments:

Race: No
Comments:

Religion or belief: No
Comments:

Sex: Yes
Comments: Evidence shows informal carers are more likely to be female and also live on a reduced income. CA is an essential benefit that ensures some financial support for carers.
Sources: 3. Information on Carers - Carers Census, Scotland, 2019-20 and 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and Equality analysis - Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2016-19 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Sexual orientation: No
Comments:

Is there evidence of any impact on other groups not covered by the protected characteristics? If yes use the Comments column to describe what the potential impact is, what you could do to remove/reduce any negative impact and what you could do to benefit from any positive impact.

(For example, carer status, single parent, economic exclusion. It is important not to limit your thinking just to the protected characteristics listed above. This question is broadening the EQIA out to be more inclusive. The impact might be a negative one (e.g. making that decision could decrease the opportunity for some people to participate) or it could be a positive one (e.g. by making that decision, more people are able to take part in the activity).)

Carers: Yes
Comments: Informal carers will benefit from the policy if they are the partner / spouse of the recipient as this income will not be used as part of the financial assessment.

4. Have you consulted with the relevant groups (these could be internal and/or external) or gathered evidence for you to know the potential impact on these different groups affected? What sources have you used to gather information?

If there are any gaps in information that make it difficult or impossible to form an opinion on how your policy, service or change might affect different groups of people, please take the time to gather information to help you make an informed answer (for example, review statistics, survey results, complaints analysis, consultation documents, customer feedback, existing briefings submissions or business reports, comparative policies from external sources and other Government Departments etc).

Desk research.

5. Having analysed the relevant sources of information, what does the evidence tell you? Is there any evidence that the proposed changes will have an adverse equality impact on any of these different groups of people?

Age: No
Disability: No
Gender Reassignment: No
Marriage and Civil Partnership: No
Pregnancy and Maternity: No
Race: No
Religion or belief: No
Sex: No
Sexual orientation: No

6. Please provide details of who the proposals affect, the adverse impacts and explain how you will minimise or remove the adverse impact.

Recipients and their partner / spouse.

7. Is there any evidence that the proposed changes will have a positive impact on any of these different groups of people and/or promote equality of opportunity? Please provide details of which group/ groups benefits from the positive impacts. and how this will be promoted/evaluated.

Age: Yes - as above

Disability: Yes - as above

Gender Reassignment: No

Marriage and Civil Partnership: No

Pregnancy and Maternity: No

Race: No

Religion or belief: No

Sex: Yes - as above

Sexual orientation: No

8. Provide a final summary of the commitments/actions you will take as a result of completing this EQIA. Who will you consult with on your action plan and how will you do this to ensure the relevant stakeholders understand the equality impact?

We will disregard CA as a source of income for the purposes of a notional assessment calculation. Where a partner is in receipt of CA in respect of the recipient, ILF Scotland will disregard CA as income.

9. Have you a plan in place to review your actions? Please provide a summary. Will plan require sign off and from where?

Ongoing monitoring and review of policy impact and any changes to CA. Policy will be signed off by Linda Scott, Head of Policy.