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Social Justice and Social Security Committee 27 January 2022

27 Jan 2022 · S6 · Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Item of business

Subordinate Legislation

Social Security Information-sharing (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 [Draft]

Macpherson, Ben SNP Edinburgh Northern and Leith Watch on SPTV

I thank Pam Duncan-Glancy for her engagement and for her recognition of the significant changes that are being made. On the points raised about our being constrained in the process of considering the eligibility criteria and the adequacy of the support, I refer to my opening statement. As I said, we have two workstreams working in tandem currently. We are launching a new benefit for applications and undertaking significant case transfer, which is unprecedented in its complexity. We must ensure that those who are receiving the new adult disability payment and those who are being transferred under the case transfer process from August receive the same amounts and are subject to the same criteria for assessment. That is about equality and parity. We have to ensure that, while in this tandem workstream, we are treating people the same and do not have a two-tier system. I talked about the review earlier. I want to re-emphasise the important point that we recognise that, once case transfer has been completed, we should consider together—as a society and as a Parliament—what changes we should make at that juncture and consider what people’s experience has been of the adult disability payment. Once there has been experience of the new system, we will receive, through the review, information on what people’s perceptions and experience of the process have been. We appreciate that we have heard, time and again over recent years, that the PIP descriptors are not consistently applied to individuals, particularly those with mental health conditions, fluctuating conditions or learning disabilities. Numerous successful appeals to DWP show that the PIP criteria have been wrongly interpreted. For example, when an individual is asked whether they can complete an activity, either at application stage or during an assessment, DWP’s consideration of those issues has not been applied properly or consistently. However, in our system, when an individual is asked whether they can complete an activity, either at application stage or during a consultation with Social Security Scotland or with a practitioner of Social Security Scotland, the full impact of an activity on the individual, including pain and fatigue, will be considered. We will be applying the reliability criteria properly and consistently. If someone tells us that they cannot walk a certain distance without losing balance, that means that they cannot walk that distance safely. The changes that we are making to the delivery of the adult disability payment, such as providing additional application channels and replacing assessments with person-centred consultations, are intended to address many of the concerns that people rightly have about how mobility criteria are applied. We will monitor the impact of the changes on awards and collect feedback from clients and stakeholders, as I have said. We cannot know for certain what the impacts of the improvements that we are making will be until we commence delivery. That is why it is important that we have the pilot and the review. The Scottish Fiscal Commission has projected that we will spend more on the adult disability payment because of the way in which we are delivering it. That is an indication that the commission believes that more people will be successful in obtaining awards. Now is not the time to be definitive on particular parts of the eligibility criteria and on whether they should change once we have undertaken the review. We will undertake the review and see what people’s experiences are of the new system. We can consider together the recommendations of the review and what change we could or should make once we emerge from the process of the twin set of workstreams, in which we will be in shortly, of delivering the new benefit and case transfer at the same time.

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Social Justice and Social Security Committee 27 January 2022

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