Child Disability Payment decision making guide
Change of Circumstances
The individual must notify Social Security Scotland of any change in circumstances that could possibly result in a change in the level of the individual’s entitlement or appropriate value of payment. This includes:
- if the individual is living in alternative accommodation
- a change in health condition or care needs
- a change in diagnosis meaning the individual is no longer considered to be terminally ill
Payment of the care component stops on the day after the individual has been resident in a care home or residential educational establishment for 28 days (CDP regs, reg. 17(2)). This is because the cost of meeting the individual’s care needs are already being met by public funds. The mobility component will continue to be paid in these circumstances.
Where the cost of any time spent in a care home or residential educational establishment is met:
- entirely by the individual
- partly by the individual and partly by someone else (other than a local authority)
- entirely by someone else (other than a local authority)
The individual’s entitlement to be paid the care component does not stop, regardless of how long the individual is resident there (CDP regs, reg. 17(4)).
If an individual’s entitlement to CDP begins whilst they are resident in a care home or residential educational establishment, the individual is not entitled to be paid the care component until the day they leave. (CDP regs, reg. 20(2))
Payment continues for the care and mobility components when individual is in a hospital or hospice (CDP regs, reg. 15(2)(b).
A hospice is a palliative care institution that is not publicly funded and whose main function is to provide palliative care for people suffering from a progressive disease in the final stages (CDP regs, reg. 2).
A hospice is a separate organisation to a hospital.
Changes when an individual already entitled to CDP becomes terminally ill
If an individual already in receipt of CDP becomes terminally ill, a case manager should make a determination without application setting out the individual’s new level of entitlement.
This could happen in two ways:
- the individual informs Social Security Scotland that they have become terminally ill
- a BASRiS form (or equivalent) is received by Social Security Scotland for an individual currently in receipt of CDP
On receipt of a BASRiS form (or equivalent) or following verbal BASRiS confirmation with the RMP or RN, the individual’s award becomes subject to the special rules on terminal illness. Social Security Scotland will make a determination without application so that:
- the individual receives the highest rate of the care component and the higher rate of the mobility component (where there is a mobility component – for CDP the child must be 3 years old). There is no review date
The new level of entitlement begins from the earlier of:
- the date that the RMP or RN made the clinical judgement that the individual meets the terminal illness definition. Unless Social Security Scotland received this judgment on the phone this will be the date of the clinical judgement of terminal illness on the BASRiS
- the date Social Security Scotland were notified by the individual that they were now terminally ill (CDP regs, reg. 15(3) and reg. 15(10))
When calculating any increased award an individual was entitled to for a previous period following a subsequent determination we must consider the value of the entitlement rather than the amount paid (CDP regs reg 15(10) and reg 28 (2A)).
Changes in award due to new information received
Social Security Scotland can make a determination without application if it becomes aware of a change of circumstances which would possibly result in an alteration to the rate of CDP payable, or cause entitlement to CDP to end.
This can affect one or more of the following:
- whether payment of assistance can continue
- which components of the assistance they receive
- at which rate of each component they receive the assistance
Case managers might need to ask for further information to make the decision.
Examples of relevant changes in circumstances include:
- a change in prognosis
- admission to publicly funded residential care
- change to immigration status
- official error
- moving from Scotland to another part of the UK
For example, a terminally ill individual admitted to publicly funded residential care home would:
- stop being paid the care component after 28 days in residential care
- still be paid the mobility component
An individual reports that there has been a change in their prognosis and they are no longer terminally ill. A case manager could request further information to establish the individual’s correct level of entitlement. Then a determination without application could be made setting out the individual’s new level of entitlement applying the normal rules.
If an individual dies, Social Security Scotland makes a payment equivalent to the payments the individual received for the 8 weeks of CDP prior to the date the individual dies (CDP regs, reg. 23(7)).