Waiting times for Adult Disability Payment worse than DWP – “another failure of competence by the SNP”

Waiting times for the Scottish Government’s Adult Disability Payment are now worse than for the equivalent system in England and Wales, according to new figures released by Social Security Scotland. The new figures showed a further increase in the waiting time for Adult Disability Payment with processing times now longer than for the DWP.

Rutherglen Councillor Robert Brown, Leader of South Lanarkshire’s Liberal Democrat Group, called the figures “another failure of competence by the SNP Government”.

Adult Disability Payment is administered by Social Security Scotland and replaces the DWP Personal Independence Payment. Current PIP claimants are being moved onto Adult Disability Payment, and new applications can be made to Social Security Scotland.

The latest figures come after welfare rights group warned in May that the roll-out of Adult Disability Payment had been affected by ‘significant delays’.

Robert Brown said:

“The most recent figures from Social Security Scotland for April show that on average it took 19 weeks to process an application, much longer than the 9 weeks for the equivalent Personal Independence Payment in England and Wales. The website for Adult Disability Payment previously told applicants that their cases would be processed in 8-10 weeks, but that section has since been removed.

It is really quite shocking that those applying for Adult Disability Payment are facing longer waits than under the DWP – the main reason for giving the Scottish Government powers in this area was to provide a speedier and more sensitive system but this has so far failed lamentably and it is disabled people in South Lanarkshire and across Scotland who are suffering from the incompetence of the SNP government. SNP Ministers are long on rhetoric and short on delivery.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The most recent figures for Adult Disability Payment can be found here. They show that the median average processing time had risen to 96 working days, the equivalent of 19 weeks.

Equivalent figures for Personal Independence Payment can be found here. The processing time figures for Adult Disability Payment are given for ‘part 2 applications’, and have therefore been compared with the processing time figure for PIP applications which are referred to assessment providers.