How to write about our benefits and the services we offer.

• Approaching 16
• Assistance
• Benefit, award, payment
• Case transfer
• Components
• Consultation
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Decisions, Determinations
• European Economic Area (EEA)
• Evidence
• Geography and regions
• Government
• Identity verification
• In person
• Legal language
• Local authority
• Mailroom
• Naming services and systems
• National Insurance card and number
• Notice of determination
• Pre-election period (purdah)
• Re-determination
• ‘Regular’ versus ‘recurring’ payments
• Regulations and acts
• Reviews
• Short-term Assistance
• Supporting information
• Suspensions
• Timeframes
• Yours faithfully, yours sincerely

Approaching 16

When writing about Child Disability Payment, this phrase is used to describe a child who is turning 16 soon.

Use ‘approaching 16’ rather than ‘rising 16’.

Assistance

Use help

We must use plain language so use ‘help’ wherever you can.

Do not use ‘assistance’ to refer to payment because the Social Security Scotland Act (2018) uses assistance to refer to other types of support which are not financial.

Read our entry for benefit, award, payment.

Mobility

For disability payments, assistance sometimes refers to physical intervention by someone else, excluding speech.

Use help instead of assistance.

If you must use assistance, only use it to explain a client’s mobility.

Benefit, award, payment

Use payment

Use ‘payment’ to talk about Social Security Scotland payments because to our clients, we’re a payment service.

Some specialists may have a shared understanding of the differences between payment and benefit, award or assistance. But most people do not.

Using payment where you can creates more clarity for more people.

Only use ‘benefit’ when you need to include something broader than a specific Social Security Scotland payment. For example, clients might get a payment from us as well as benefits from other organisations, like the Department for Work and Pensions.

When not to use payment

Do not use ‘payment’ or ‘award’ when we will not pay someone. This could be when someone:

• does not qualify
• qualifies, but we cannot pay them for another reason

Assistance has several meanings

Using assistance to refer to payment is unclear because the Social Security Scotland Act (2018) uses it to refer to non-financial support too. Read our entry for assistance.

Case transfer

Use ‘move’ instead of ‘transfer’ to explain the case transfer process to users.

Talk about the award or benefit moving, not the person or the ‘case’.

Case transfer may be used internally but for external content it is the award that moves.

Components

These are parts of disability payments and depend on what the client is entitled to.

There are care components and mobility components.

Components are paid at different rates - not levels.

Consultation

When a health practitioner talks to a client about their condition to make an accurate decision about their disability benefit.

Use ‘consultation’.

Do not use ‘assessment’.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Follow the GOV.UK style guide entry for ‘coronavirus (COVID-19)’.

Decisions, Determinations

A determination is a decision we make about an application.

When we make a decision on an individual’s entitlement, we should call this a determination.

This ensures everyone remembers that rights of re-determination and appeal flow from the determination.

Other decisions do not have rights of challenge. We can just call these ‘decisions’.

For further guidance, see our entry on ‘notice of determination’.

European Economic Area (EEA)

Follow the GOV.UK style guide entry for ‘European Economic Area (EEA)'.

Evidence

At Social Security Scotland we use the term ‘evidence’ to mean documents or information that confirm a client meets a particular eligibility condition. For example, documents that show they live in Scotland or confirm who they are.

The term ‘evidence’ is also used in other contexts. Such as:

• on systems, such as SPM, to mean records on a client’s case
• in fraud cases, to mean all information gathered for an investigation

Do not use ‘supporting information’ to refer to these kinds of documents. Read entry on supporting information.

Use:

• send us evidence to confirm you live in Scotland
• provide us with evidence of your time in care
• upload your documents
• add proof of job offer evidence to SPM

Do not use:

• a written kinship care agreement can also be used as supporting information

Geography and regions

Follow the GOV.UK style guide entry for ‘Geography and regions’.

Government

Follow the GOV.UK style guide entry for ‘government’.

Identity verification

Use: identity verification.

Avoid:

• identity and verification
• ID&V

In person

Use ‘in person’ instead of ‘face-to-face’ when describing meeting clients.

This is because ‘face-to-face’ could also refer to video calls with clients.

Legal language

Use clear language that helps users meet legal requirements. Research shows technical language can be distressing and a barrier to understanding. For example, words like ‘prosecute’ can make users feel threatened and add to stress.

To help users understand legal content:

• clearly describe actions
• avoid technical legal terms – if you need to use them, explain what they mean
• use a clear and neutral word like ‘must’ to explain legal requirements, for example ‘you must tell us if your circumstances change’
• follow the tone of voice guidelines
• only include the name of a law or regulation if you need to
• put the law in context for the user by explaining why it’s relevant, for example ‘so that we can make sure you’re on the right award’ or ‘your money may be taken back, stopped or reduced’

Local authority

Follow the GOV.UK style guide entry for ‘local authority'.

Mailroom

One word. Not ‘mail room’.

Naming services and systems

Good service and system names should:

• use plain English
• meet the Service Manual readability standards
• use the words users use
• be based on analytics and user research
• describe a task, not a technology
• not need to change when policy or technology changes
• be verbs, not nouns
• not include government department or agency names
• not be brand-driven or focused on marketing

Read more guidance about naming your service from the Scottish Government service manual. This guidance can also apply to naming a system.

National Insurance card and number

‘National Insurance’ should always be capitalised, but ‘card’ and ‘number’ should not.

Never use ‘NINO’ when referring to a National Insurance number.

Notice of determination

After we make a determination, we send the individual a notice of determination.

This legally must include specific information, including re-determination and appeal rights.

In operational guidance we should use 'notice of determination'.

In client-facing content we do not need to call this a ‘notice of determination’, as long as the information legally required is included.

If we do use the phrase determination or notice of determination in client content, we should give an explanation for this.

Pre-election period (purdah)

Use 'pre-election period'. Do not use 'purdah'.

Re-determination

This is the legal term for when the agency are asked by the client to look at their decision again.

This step is required before a client can appeal a decision.

All lower case and hyphenated.

‘Regular’ versus ‘recurring’ payments

In relation to benefit payment frequency.

Use ‘regular' for ongoing payments.

Do not use 'recurring’.

Where payments are made once a year or on only one occasion, these can be called one-off payments.

Regulations and acts

Do not capitalise ‘regulations’ or ‘act’. Only use upper case if you’re using the full title: Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. With no comma before the date.

Only included the name or a regulation or legal act if necessary. Read the legal language entry for other ways to describe legal duties.

Reviews

As in scheduled and unscheduled reviews.

This term is used internally - for example in ops guidance.

This term does not appear in legislation so use another term in public facing content if this term has negative connotations.

For client-facing content, try to be transparent about what the review will actually cover.

Short-term Assistance

The name of the payment which the client receives whilst awaiting the outcome of a re-determination or appeal.

Capitalise ‘Short’ and ‘Assistance’. Insert a hyphen between ‘Short’ and ‘term’.

This is consistent with style for other Social Security Scotland payments.

Supporting information

At Social Security Scotland, ‘supporting information’ helps us understand a client’s disability, condition or needs. It can be documents or other kinds of information, including information given over the phone. Supporting information is provided by health or other professionals or the client's wider support network.

Do not use ‘evidence’ to refer to supporting information. We do not use supporting information as evidence of someone's condition. It supports what the client tells us. Read entry on evidence.

Use:

• supporting information is usually copies of documents or letters you may already have at home
• supporting information provided by the client will be stored under 'Active Evidence'

Do not use:

• provide evidence alongside your application

Suspensions

We suspend a payment or a case. We do not suspend the client.

Use: suspend the client's payment

Do not use: suspend the client

Use: end a suspension

Do not use: unsuspend or lift a suspension.

However, if a system button is titled 'unsuspend', then you can use that term to describe it. This is because we refer to system buttons exactly as they appear.

Timeframes

If you need to explain a timeframe, use days when it is an internal process a client adviser would do.

For example a system process - ‘Create a task to check in 14 days' time.’

Use ‘weeks' to a client.

This includes any operational guidance which the client adviser may relay to the client.

Yours faithfully, yours sincerely

Valediction at end of letter notifications.

When we're writing to a named person and the letter begins ‘Dear <name>’, use ‘Yours sincerely’

When we're writing to someone whose name we do not know and the letter begins ‘Dear Sir/Madam,’ use ‘Yours faithfully’

In technical drafts where there may be a name of an organisation or a named person field check business rules carefully to see if differences can be accommodated to fit the above, or seek further guidance from content leads.