Appointees

Where an appointee has already been accepted by Department for Work and Pensions to receive Personal Independence Payment on behalf of the transferring individual, the appointee is to be treated on or after the transfer date as though they act on behalf of the individual claiming Adult Disability Payment.

When someone makes a new and successful application for Adult Disability Payment, the award cannot be paid to a person as an appointee until Social Security Scotland checks that they can act as an appointee.

However, where an individual’s initial Adult Disability Payment determination resulted from the case transfer process, the Department for Work and Pensions appointee can continue to act for the individual in the Scottish system until these further checks are carried out (Adult Disability Payment regs, Sch 2, Part 3, Para 15(1)).

These checks need to be completed as soon as reasonably practicable. However, until then the appointee can continue to act on the individual’s behalf, including receiving their payments of Adult Disability Payment (Adult Disability Payment regs, Sch 2, Part 3, Para 15(2)).

When these checks have been completed, Social Security Scotland must decide if the appointment should continue or be terminated. If the appointment is terminated, a decision should be made as to whether it would be appropriate for someone else to act on the individual’s behalf and the usual appointee process should be followed (Adult Disability Payment regs, Sch 2, Part 3, Para 15(2)(b)-(c)).