Scots with Disabilities Urged to Check Eligibility for New Benefits

Disabled people in Scotland are being urged by the government to check whether they might be eligible for benefits that could help make their life a little easier.

Policymakers in Edinburgh have launched an awareness campaign designed to increase the uptake of financial support earmarked for adults and children with disabilities.

The benefits being promoted are the newly established Child Disability Payments and the Adult Disability Payments.

Both benefits will be administered by Social Security Scotland and are intended to replace the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for Children and Personal Independence Payments (PIPs), which have previously been distributed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

People across Scotland who have been in receipt of disability benefits via the DWP should see their claims and awards transferred automatically to the new system without having to apply separately.

However, the Scottish government is encouraging people who could be entitled to disability benefits but don’t yet receive them to apply for access to the financial support that’s now being made available to help them.

“Being disabled or having a long-term health condition can come with a variety of extra costs, such as paying more for accessible transport,” commented Shirley-Anne Somerville, Scotland’s social justice secretary.

“We want to make sure that disabled children and adults get all the extra financial support they are entitled to, to ease the impact of those costs.” 

Plans are in place for a national TV advertising campaign in Scotland that will aim to drive up awareness and uptake of the newly created state-backed disability benefits.

Part of the government’s strategy is to focus on offsetting any sense of stigma that some people might think surrounds the process of claiming benefits.

“We believe social security is a human right. It is here for any of us should we need it and we want to make sure people are accessing what they are due,” explained Ms Somerville.

The debt help charity Citizens Advice has welcomed the shake up of the way disability benefits are administered in Scotland but emphasised the importance of ensuring the potential for stress and anxiety among applicants can be reduced to a minimum.

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