SUPPORT WELFARE RIGHTS

One of the many benefits of Spinal Injuries Scotland membership is a free legal and welfare advice service. Access to effective and timely legal assistance can be as important as rehabilitation. In fact, effective legal assistance is often necessary to sustain the needed rehabilitation services over a long period of time. Following initial advice, assistance on completing benefit forms is available as well as representation at hearings.

We recommend Digby Brown Solicitors for anyone in Scotland with a spinal cord injury looking for legal or welfare rights advice

The firm has more than 40 years' experience dealing with every aspect of someone who has sustained a spinal cord injury

We would like to introduce the new Senior Welfare Rights Manager for Digby Brown, Douglas McAndrew Below he talks through some of the recent benefit changes If you would like a free benefits appraisal, please get in touch

My name is Douglas McAndrew and I’m delighted to introduce myself as the new Senior Welfare Rights Manager for Digby Brown Solicitors After thirteen years which saw an expansion of the free welfare rights service provided for clients and on behalf of our charity partners, my predecessor Jacqueline Lange decided to hang up her Disability Rights Handbook and retire We all wish her the very best for the future

I’ve been a welfare rights advisor for almost eighteen years in and around Glasgow, learning the ropes initially as a volunteer for the Citizens Advice Bureau before working at a local disability project in Knightswood, Renfrewshire Council and for the last eleven years at a community based Housing Association My drive to advocate on behalf of clients is as strong as ever, not least because the welfare rights environment has been in a constant state of change which means the job is always evolving The 2010’s were defined by the Welfare Reform Act which saw the introduction of Personal Independence Payment to replace Disability Living Allowance as well as the rollout of Universal Credit which replaced six ‘legacy benefits’ including Tax Credits and Housing Benefit A difficult adjustment for many reasons

The most significant change for disabled Scots in the 2020’s is the increasing presence of the new Scottish Social Security Agency and the process of devolving several benefits from the UK’s Department of Work and Pensions

Most significantly this has been the introduction of the Child Disability Payment in 2021 and last year the Adult Disability Payment, the new disability benefit which replaces Personal Independence Payment for working age people This was fully rolled out for all new disability benefit claims on 28th of August last year with the intention of migrating existing PIP claims over the next few years The Pension Age Disability Payment is set for a pilot in 2024 with a full launch the following year

Many readers may have experienced difficulties with PIP and sought to challenge decisions Government statistics from July to September 2022 reveal that 68% of PIP decisions were overturned at a tribunal hearing, in other words an independent adjudicator found that over two thirds of these decisions were incorrect and as a result an award has been made or increased This overturn rate has been consistent throughout the life of the benefit Perhaps like me you may wonder why the Department for Work and Pensions have chosen not to address these demonstrable flaws in their assessment and decision-making process?

Although ADP is identical to PIP in terms of the two rates of payment for a ‘Daily Living’ and ‘Mobility’ component the Scottish Government want to deliver a smoother assessment process

Their hope is that fewer decisions will be subject to challenge which essentially means they anticipate a higher rate of successful awards made The PIP assessment could often be a trigger for acute anxiety, usually in anticipation of a medical carried out by someone lacking in appropriate clinical experience A key difference promoted for ADP would seem to be a greater reliance on supporting evidence supplied by the claimant meaning fewer assessments

How are the Scottish Social Security Agency doing with ADP so far? Let’s look at the official statistics

These are the key figures in the reporting period from 21st March to 31st October last year

39,170 part 1 applications were received. This is the short initial stage which captures the personal information needed to date stamp a claim.

18,685 part 2 applications were received. This is the bulk of the form which asks all the questions relating to how the claimant’s health affects them. After registering a claim eight weeks are allowed to submit part 2.

We can see that 11% more awards have been authorised for ADP and the rate of disallowance is less than half that of PIP The high rate of ADP withdrawals has been accounted for by applications made incorrectly, for example in a local authority area yet to begin their pilot launch or from someone ineligible because they’re in the wrong age group We expect to see the rate of withdrawal decrease as the benefit becomes more familiar

The next set of statistics are released in March and will cover the first six months of the full launch The last statistics noted only 160 claims had been subject to redetermination by the SSSA with none forwarded to the new ‘Social Security Chamber’ which will offer an independent tribunal As the year progresses we’ll look more closely at the infrastructure in place to deal with challenging decisions

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The figures above tell us fewer than half the claims registered have been completed, although some will have been submitted after the 31st October The paper version of part 2 of the ADP form is 87 pages compared to 39 in a full PIP form Is this too daunting for some people to complete? Lots of the space is given over to images and prompts which help the claimant understand the questions however it’s a lot of information to absorb

5665 ADP applications have been processed with a decision made by 31st October Of these 62% were authorised, 23% were denied and 15% were withdrawn

For comparison, between April 2013 and October 2022 6 1 million new PIP claims have been decided with 51% of these authorised, 47% denied and 2% withdrawn

All benefits will be increased by 10 1% from April 2023 to reflect inflationary pressure on household budgets We know that the cost of living crisis has had a disproportionate effect on disabled households, for example because of the need to maintain a warm house and power equipment, so we await the statement from the Chancellor this month and will examine it carefully

Targeted support for vulnerable people is always welcome but equally the ‘social protection’ budget from which all benefit spending comes has in recent years been an easy target for spending cuts and some observers speculate that the cost of the pandemic and low economic growth will usher in a new round of austerity measures

Douglas McAndrew Senior Welfare Rights Manager Digby Brown Solicitors