Disability benefit information deleted online to mask SNP failures – Labour

The Scottish Government has been accused of “moving the goalposts” after information about its disability benefits was removed from online, Scottish Labour said.

The adult disability payment (ADP) is extra money given to people who live with a disability or long-term health condition that impacts their everyday life.

Until recently, public guidance for ADPs said Social Security Scotland, an executive agency of the Scottish Government dealing with social security provision, aims to make a decision on applications for the benefit in eight to 10 weeks.

This target timescale has now been removed from the website, with no update on how long processing applications will take.

Scottish Labour called the move a “shameless” attempt from the Scottish Government to try and “mask its failures” while claiming recent figures showed 15% of applicants were left waiting more than 10 weeks for a decision.

“The SNP are already breaking promises on social security – but instead of fixing the problem, they are moving the goalposts,” said Scottish Labour spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy.

“The SNP can’t just change targets to suit their failures – people need the fairer social security system they were promised.”

ADP was launched as a pilot starting with new claims being accepted in a small number of local authorities from March 21 ahead of the full national launch on August 29.

The Scottish Government said it is expecting a large volume of applications on the national rollout, which may mean processing applications may take longer.

A Freedom of Information request published in July showed between March 21 (the date of first ADP applications being received) and June 22 this year, the Scottish Government received applications for 1,216 cases, which were then processed.

Of those applications received, 180 took more than 10 weeks to be processed, which is 14.8% of the total.

A Social Security Scotland spokesperson said: “Our priority is to give people timely decisions on their applications for the new adult disability payment, which is still in its pilot stage, and we are committed to making the right decisions first time, reducing the need for people to appeal decisions.

“To do that, in contrast to the UK Government’s approach, Social Security Scotland will collect information on behalf of people so that we have all the information we need from the start.

“Importantly, people who are entitled to adult disability payment will be paid from the day they applied.”