FOI Reference: FOI/202200307724
Date received: 22 June 2022
Date responded: 13 July 2022
In relation to the time taken in processing new claims for Adult Disability Payment:
Adult Disability Payment is currently in a pilot phase of accepting applications.
We began accepting applications in an initial three local authority areas in March 2022, which included Dundee City, Perth and Kinross and the Western Isles, and then expanded into Angus, South and North Lanarkshire in June 2022.
The benefit will be introduced to Fife, City of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire from 25 July ahead of opening nationwide on 29 August.
Between 21 March 2022 (the date of first applications being received) and 22 June 2022 (the date of your request) we had received completed Part 1 and Part 2 applications for 1,216 cases, which were then processed.
Within applications received, those with a processing time greater than 10 weeks numbered 180, which is 14.8% of the total.
With public holidays taken into account, 13 weeks had not yet passed between the point of first application and the date of your request. As such there were no applications with a processing time greater than 13 weeks.
We are committed to giving people timely decisions and our priority is making the right decisions first time.
Allowing adequate time to consider applications and gathering information on people’s behalf, which is a key point of difference to the Department for Work and Pensions system, can make processing take a bit longer.
However, it is not necessarily longer than the overall process under the Department for Work and Pensions as clients would have had to have taken the time before to gather evidence themselves.
This should also reduce the need for people to go through a re-determination or appeal. We continue to look for ways in which to improve the service we provide to clients – including providing timely decisions.
Further information about Adult Disability Payment can be found in our quarterly statistical publications.
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing responses to requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests and they can be viewed.