This guidance applies to:

• Child Disability Payment (CDP)
• Adult Disability Payment (ADP).

This guidance explains when case managers can use powers to temporarily suspend social security payments, see ‘When payment of assistance may be suspended’.

Suspension means temporarily not making payments to the individual that they are entitled to receive. The purposes of a suspension include:

• encouraging an individual to engage with Social Security Scotland
• reducing the risk that an individual will be overpaid assistance
• reducing the risk that an individual will experience financial abuse.

When a case manager is considering whether to suspend payments, they must have regard to the individual’s financial circumstances, see ‘Considering the individual’s financial circumstances’.

This guidance explains what information must be provided to the individual when their payments are suspended, see ‘Suspending payments’.

Individuals have a right to request a review of a decision to suspend assistance. This guidance explains how case managers should conduct a review of a decision to suspend assistance, see ‘Reviewing a decision to suspend payments’.

This guidance explains what happens when a suspension is ended, see ‘Ending a suspension’.

Given the potential significance of the impact of suspending payments for the individual, case managers should make use of the case discussion process where there are any doubts about how to proceed.