Dignity, fairness and respect inspires Iceland visit

Last week, our Chief Executive, David Wallace, met with representatives from the government of Iceland.

The team from the Icelandic Welfare Appeals Committee met with policy officials from the Scottish Government who work on our benefits to discuss our history, how we deliver our benefits and our future.

They also took part in a policy workshop focusing on how people can challenge a benefit decision made by us and the work we are doing to improve that process for people.

In the afternoon, the Committee visited our office in Glasgow, where they were met by David Wallace, our Chief Executive.

David took them on a brief tour of the office and showed them our visual timeline.

The committee then took part in a presentation led by David on what we do when people are unhappy with a decision we make about their benefits. The talk focused on appeals, redeterminations and the changes we are making in the future.

David spoke about how we handle redeterminations and appeals in line with our values of dignity, fairness and respect and how we have built our service with people who have had lived experience of our benefits system.

Colleagues who work with our clients and who help them during an appeals process contributed to the presentation, which included some of the results from our most recent Client Survey and what we are doing to act on feedback from people who receive our benefits.

The committee chair, Guðrún Agnes Þorsteinsdóttir, stated that they chose to visit Scotland due to it's distinctive approach and new system. She said: "Social Security Scotland has done a lot in a few short years. It’s such a high level of service and we are really impressed.”

Committee member Kári Gunndórssonadded, “I think we can learn a lot from you – your level of service is a lot more than we are doing in Iceland. I can see that dignity, fairness and respect is built through the whole process.”

The day ended with a question and answer session and a promise to continue working together to help people who need support.