How to process an Adult Disability Payment application from someone getting Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance

Only individuals who were born on or after 9 April 1948 can successfully apply for Adult Disability Payment if they have an ongoing award of Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance (ADP Regulations, Schedule 2, Part 3A, Para 5A).

People with Disability Living Allowance awards administered by the DWP cannot successfully apply directly to Adult Disability Payment. This means individuals must wait for their Disability Living Allowance award to transfer to Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance before they can make an application for Adult Disability Payment.

Individuals with an award of Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance need to complete both part 1 and part 2 of an Adult Disability Payment application before the process can begin.

Before processing an Adult Disability Payment application from someone receiving Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance, attempts should be made to contact the individual to discuss their applications. This is because when the Adult Disability Payment award begins, their Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance will end and they will not be able to reapply.

Where someone with an award of Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance completes an application for Adult Disability Payment, their Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance award will be moved onto an interim Adult Disability Payment award. This will based on:

• the information Social Security Scotland holds in relation to the individual’s Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance award;
• any other relevant information available to Social Security Scotland at the time of the determination (ADP Regulations, Part 3A, schedule 2, reg 15A(3)), unless the individual has reported a change to Department for Work and Pensions or Social Security Scotland, which has not been taken into account for Disability Living Allowance (ADP Regulations, Part 3A, schedule 2, reg 15A(5)).

A case manager will not typically review the information contained in the Adult Disability Payment application prior to the first Adult Disability Payment determination. The interim Adult Disability Payment award will begin at the end of the next Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance payment cycle.

In most cases an individual will receive the same components at the same rates of Adult Disability Payment as they received in their Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance immediately before their interim Adult Disability Payment award was made (ADP Regulations, Part 3A, schedule 2, reg 15B). For example, if they received the highest rate of the care component and the lower rate of the mobility component of Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance, they are entitled to the equivalent enhanced rate of the daily living 4 component and the standard rate of the mobility component of Adult Disability Payment. There are exceptions to this rule, however. [See paragraph 15]

Because Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance does not consist of the same components as Adult Disability Payment, for this group of clients a transitional rate daily living component (which is equivalent to the lowest rate of the Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance care component) will be awarded, to allow these individuals’ awards to move over on a like for like basis. This will be paid until the case is reviewed against the eligibility rules for Adult Disability Payment (ADP Regulations, Part 3A, schedule 2, reg 15B(2)(a))

Until 1 January 2028, where Social Security Scotland, before making the interim Adult Disability Payment award, become aware that the individual meets the Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI), they will be eligible for the highest rate of Adult Disability Payment award than the Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance they are receiving (ADP Regulations, Part 3A, schedule 2, reg 15).