Cash safety net for claimants stripped of disability benefits

People stripped of disability benefit will be able to claim short-term cash support while appealing the ruling, under Scottish Government blueprints.

Short Term Assistance will mean people will continue to receive the money they were getting before the decision was made to lower or stop their payment, the first time such a benefit has been available in the UK.

To ensure people are not put off seeking an appeal or re-determination, they will not have to repay the money if the re-determination or appeal upholds the decision to lower or stop their social security payment.

The safety net support comes as the Scottish Government prepared to take control of 11 welfare powers from Westminster. Scotland has set up a new benefits agency, Social Security Scotland, to handle the payments.

It follows controversy over the use of private firms to carry out disability benefit assessments. Last year, The Sunday Post revealed that people who were registered blind were being told to read letters from a wall chart as part of their assessment for Personal Independence Payments.

Social Security Secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, has said people applying for benefits from the Scottish social security system will not be subjected to “degrading” assessments involving private sector firms. Instead, the decisions would be made with input from health professionals, and if necessary, a consultation with a government-appointed doctor.

However, as staff have been diverted to deal with Covid, the introduction of the Scottish Government’s replacement for Personal Independence Payments will be delayed and UK ministers have agreed they will continue to deliver disability benefits to Scottish claimants over a longer transition period.

In February it emerged the cost of setting up Social Security Scotland had climbed to £651 million, more than double the original estimate of £308 million given in 2017.

Ms Somerville said: “This new payment will give people the confidence to ask us to look again and to go to appeal if they feel they need to, ensuring they get everything they may be entitled to while working through this process.

“We hope to drastically reduce the need for people to go through the re-determination and appeal process under our new system by getting the decisions right first time.”

Heather Fisken, head of policy and research at Inclusion Scotland, a national disabled people’s organisation, also welcomed the move. She said: “Everyone should have access to social protections, it is a human right. It is vital that support is available while people wait for the outcome of any appeal.

“This payment shows the Scottish Government is doing things differently from the UK Government welfare programme which saw many disabled people trapped in grinding poverty and treated as third-class citizens when they appealed decisions.”

The Enable Scotland charity, which helps people with learning disabilities, said: “Our specialist welfare rights service has supported over 1,500 individuals to navigate their way through the often complex social security system.

“We are really pleased that claimants in Scotland will now be able to claim short-term assistance whilst appealing decisions, taking a significant amount of financial hardship and associated anxieties out of what is already a very stressful time for people.”

It felt like a nightmare. I was trapped in my home

David Trotter was plunged into financial difficulties when he was moved to a lower rate of disability benefits for several months while he appealed the decision.

David, 36, who lives in Dalkeith, Midlothian, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at just 20. Despite this he managed to drive to his job as an IT consultant – but in 2016 he had to give this up when his mobility money was slashed from £240 a month to just £80.

“My mobility vehicle had been taken away while I was going through the appeal process,” he said. “This meant I would have had to get a bus into Edinburgh then a train to Livingston.”

The decision was overturned at a tribunal and David was placed back on the higher payment rate. “It was a nightmare,” David said. “I was trapped at home and I had no means of getting to a job.”

He welcomed the introduction of the Short Term Assistance scheme.

David added: “If this had been in place when I was going through my appeal, I might have been able to stay at my job.”

It is wrong for people to be left with less while we look again

by Shirley-Anne Sommervillie, Social Security Secretary 

We are committed to making sure everyone gets all the money they are entitled to. Key to this is making sure people feel confident and capable to challenge our decisions when they think that we have got it wrong.

We hope to drastically reduce the need for people to go through the re-determination and appeal process under our new system by getting the decisions right first time of course, but where we don’t get it right, we want to have the opportunity to right
this wrong and people shouldn’t be penalised to do so.

People who already get disability assistance will rely on this financial support. If, through a planned review, the amount of financial assistance changes and they feel this is not the right decision, we don’t want to leave them worse off while we look again.

The idea that someone should be left with less or nothing while a system double-checks its workings to make sure it got its decision right, is wrong. To make sure this doesn’t happen, we will introduce Short Term Assistance.

Short Term Assistance will mean the client continues to receive the amount of money they were getting before the decision was made to lower or stop their payment.

To ensure clients are not put off seeking an appeal or re-determination, they will not have to repay Short Term Assistance if the re-determination or appeal upholds
the decision to lower or stop their social security payment.

Making the decision to ask us to look again can be a difficult one for more reasons than what it may mean financially. The process can be stressful for people.

People will have longer under our system that the existing UK Government system to make this decision and request a re-determination. Our new system will give people six weeks compared to what is currently one month.

Like everything with our new social security system, we want to make sure that challenging a decision is as clear and straightforward as possible to do. That is why we will work with people who will use our new system to design that part of it.

We also want to manage people’s expectations throughout. That is why we will commit from the outset to complete a re-determination within eight weeks. This is in contrast to the current UK Government system, which offers no set time period for this process.

The financial aspect, the lack of transparency over process and how long it takes and the difficulty of navigating through it, can all put people off. We have worked to remove all of these barriers and ensure a system of respect and dignity.