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Scheduled Review
Where a Scottish resident, in receipt of Disability Living Allowance is scheduled to have their award reviewed, their case will be selected for transfer so the review can be conducted by Social Security Scotland. Their Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance award will be made on a like-for-like basis with their Disability Living Allowance award (Scottish Adult DLA Regs, Schedule 1, Part 2, Para 7(5)) at the point of transfer, and a review date set for Social Security Scotland to complete the review.
Backdating – Scheduled Review after Transfer
Some transferred cases will be subject to scheduled review shortly after transfer because their cases were selected for transfer to avoid overlap with the DWP review process.
In this context only, if the person’s care needs have increased so as to entitle them to the higher rate of Scottish Adult DLA, this can be backdated. In this circumstance, the effective date of any increase will be whichever is later of:
- The date 20 weeks before the fixed-term DLA award was due to end. This is the date DWP would have started the renewal process.
- The date the person first met the 13 or 26 week backwards test for the higher rate,
Note this is different from the usual effective date rule for scheduled reviews. This is because we typically honour DWP review dates, but we may have had to delay the review starting to complete the transfer process. It would therefore be unjust to increase the person’s award from a later date (Scottish Adult DLA Regs, Reg 40(2))
The amount of backdated benefit should be reduced to take account of any Disability Living Allowance or Scottish Adult DLA already received for the same period (Scottish Adult DLA Regs, Reg 40(4)).
Note that all subsequent reviews and initial reviews that do not fall into this specific context should follow the normal Scottish Adult DLA effective date rules.
Examples – Backdating an increase in entitlement after scheduled review
Example 1
Trevor is 80 and has been in receipt of Disability Living Allowance care component at the lowest rate, on a fixed-term award from DWP.
His DLA award is due for renewal with an end of award date of 16 September 2025, and his case has been selected for transfer on 3 March 2025. The case transfer takes 10 weeks, so his Scottish Adult DLA entitlement begins on 12 May 2025. Although the renewal of his DLA would have started on 29 April (16 September minus 20 weeks), Trevor’s DLA review date must be set to a date after the transfer completes.
At the scheduled review, the case manager determines that Trevor’s care needs have increased so as to entitle him to middle rate care component of Scottish Adult DLA, and that this increase in care needs began on 1 November 2024. Trevor is over the ‘relevant age’ when the change happened, so he needs to meet the 26 week backwards test.
Applying the backwards test, Trevor is entitled to the increased rate of benefit from 2 May 2025 (1 November + 26 weeks). Therefore, the increase in entitlement should be backdated to 2 May 2025.
As this date is before Trevor’s award completed transfer, the amount he receives for the backdated award will be reduced by the amount of DLA he received between 2 May and 12 May, and the amount of Scottish Adult DLA received between 12 May and the date of the determination
Example 2
Kaavya is 63. Her Disability Living Allowance has an end of award date of 19 March 2026. DWP would have started the renewal process on 30 October 2025, but Kaavya’s case is selected for managed transfer on 1 September 2025.
Case transfer takes 12 weeks which means Scottish Adult DLA comes into payment on 24 November. The scheduled review is carried out on 21 January 2026. The review finds that Kaavya’s care needs have increased sufficiently to entitle her to highest rate of care component of Scottish Adult DLA, and that this has been the case since April 2025.
Kaavya’s new entitlement to highest rate care component of Scottish Adult DLA can be backdated to 20 weeks before her fixed term DLA award was due to end, provided she has satisfied the qualifying period. (Because Kaavya was under the relevant age when the change happened, she must meet the 13 week backwards test).
Therefore Kaavya’s new rate of Scottish Adult DLA is payable from 30 October 2025.
The amount she receives for the backdated award will be reduced by any DLA she received between 30 October and 24 November, and the amount of Scottish Adult DLA received between 24 November and the date of the determination.
For more information please see the chapters Relevant considerations and Change of Circumstances
The Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance should not be backdated where all of the following are met:
- The client’s Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance was selected for transfer because it was scheduled for DWP review (meaning the date the case was selected for transfer is the date that the Department for Work and Pensions would have sent out the AR1 review form)
- The initial review of the Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance award leads to a decrease in that Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance award
In this scenario any decrease should take effect from the date the of the determination without application resulting from that review. This is because the transfer process may have contributed to delaying the review and it would be therefore unjust to reduce the award before this date (Scottish Adult DLA Regs, Reg 41(1)(e) 29).
Note that any subsequent scheduled reviews will be subject to the usual effective date rules (Scottish Adult DLA Regs, Regs 41 and 42).