More than 200,000 disability benefit claimants transferred to devolved agency

Scotland’s devolved benefits agency has taken control of more than 200,000 cases of disabled people from the UK Government.

Figures released last month show 207,295 people were receiving the adult disability payment (ADP) from Social Security Scotland as of July 31.

The benefit is the Scottish equivalent of the personal independence payment provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and has been designed to treat people with “dignity, fairness and respect”.

Just over 2,000 of those transferred were receiving the disability living allowance for adults.

A total of £1.57 billion has been paid out in ADP since March 2022.

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “This is an important milestone in the devolution of benefits to Scotland.

“People who received DWP benefits talked about the system being inhumane.

“They had experienced a system which did not get the decision right first time and which involved degrading assessments run by private providers.

“That worry is over for many now as we have moved the awards of hundreds of thousands of people to our new system, where they can benefit from its founding principles of dignity, fairness and respect.

“Adult disability payment was designed in partnership with disabled people to be better, fairer and easier to access.

“We are continuing to transfer the awards of disabled people from the DWP to our new system.”