Jam today? The financial impact of claiming short-term assistance in Scotland

This blog explores some of the pros and cons of getting short-term assistance while challenging a determination to reduce or remove an award of adult disability payment (ADP) or child disability payment (CDP). Advisers should be aware that some people can be worse off in the long run.

Who can get short-term assistance  

Short-term assistance is a new benefit, and part of the Scottish social security system. A claimant living in Scotland can get short-term assistance while requesting a redetermination or appealing to the First-tier Tribunal against a determination that reduces or removes an existing award of ADP or CDP.   

Short-term assistance begins on the date a redetermination request or appeal is made. It ends on the date of the redetermination or the date of the First-tier Tribunal’s decision. It must be claimed at each stage, for example by simply ticking a box on the form on the mygov.scot website.

The amount of short-term assistance paid is the difference between the previous award of ADP/CDP and the current award (if any). Short-term assistance is not repayable, even if a challenge is unsuccessful. If a challenge is successful, the claimant is only paid ADP/CDP for the period for which short-term assistance was paid if the ADP/CDP entitlement is higher than the amount of short-term assistance already received for that period.  

Short-term assistance and other entitlements

At first glance, there seems to be no reason not to claim short-term assistance if eligible to do so. However, some people may be worse off if they claim short-term assistance as it is not a ‘qualifying benefit’ for many other entitlements in the same way that ADP and CDP are.

This becomes a problem if the amount of short-term assistance paid and the eventual outcome of the challenge mean that there is no entitlement to one or both components of ADP/CDP for a period – as there may be a loss of other entitlements that depend on having an ADP/CDP award. The only warning of the possibility on the form above is a statement that short-term assistance ‘will replace’ the disability benefit. The following case study illustrates the scale of potential losses for some claimants.

Case study

Veronica is a lone parent and cares for her daughter Jessie, who is four. Jessie is entitled to CDP middle rate care component. Veronica gets carer’s allowance and income support. She gets child tax credit for Jessie, including a disabled child element.  

Following a review, Social Security Scotland makes a determination that Jessie is no longer entitled to CDP from 25 March. Veronica’s carer’s allowance also stops. Her income support continues (as she is a lone parent of a child under 5), but without the carer premium. Her child tax credit no longer includes the disabled child element.

Veronica requests a redetermination on 2 April. She claims short-term assistance, which is awarded from that date. Social Security Scotland carries out a redetermination on 18 May, still not awarding CDP. Short-term assistance ends on that date. Veronica appeals on 25 May and is awarded short-term assistance again from that date. The appeal is heard on 22 September. The First-tier Tribunal reinstates the CDP award of the middle rate care component.

Social Security Scotland pays arrears of CDP for the periods 25 March-1 April, and 19-24 May, as well as reinstating the ongoing CDP award from 24 September. They do not pay CDP for the periods 2 April to 18 May and 25 May to 22 September as Jessie has received the same amount of money already in the form of short-term assistance.

The financial impact of getting short-term assistance

Veronica reclaims carer’s allowance, which is refused for the weeks in which only short-term assistance was paid (as Jessie had no CDP entitlement). Consequently, Veronica is not awarded the income support carer premium for those weeks, or the April payment of the carer’s allowance supplement. HMRC do not add the disabled child element to Veronica’s child tax credit for the dates there was no CDP entitlement. If Veronica had not got short-term assistance while challenging the loss of CDP, she would have eventually been over £2,700 better off (using 2023-24 benefit rates).

A new carer support payment has now replaced carer’s allowance in some areas. Short-term assistance is not a qualifying benefit for carer support payment either, so in the case study above it would make no difference if Veronica was claiming this instead of carer’s allowance.

Advisers should also be aware that short-term assistance is not a qualifying benefit for the annual young carer grant. If a young person also helped to look after Jessie, claiming short-term assistance might have affected when they were able to qualify for a further young carer grant (as a disability benefit must be paid ‘throughout’ the 13 week qualifying period). This may reduce the total number of young carer grants that can be claimed.

Who is better off with short-term assistance

For some people, the advantage of having some money now will outweigh the possibility of losing out on other entitlements later. In any case, it is important to be able to make an informed decision.  

There are two groups of claimants who are always better off claiming short-term assistance. Firstly, if the claimant and their carer do not get any other benefits or advantages that depend on ADP/CDP as a passport to entitlement then the above problem cannot arise.

The second group is people who quite clearly do not now qualify for ADP/CDP at all. For example, if the decision to remove Jessie’s CDP in the case study above had been obviously correct, Veronica’s other entitlements would have never been reinstated whether she challenged the determination stopping the CDP and claimed short term-assistance or not.

Uncertain future

CPAG has raised this issue with the Scottish government. Of course the Scottish government cannot change the rules about what counts as a qualifying benefit for reserved entitlements. But there are ways they could design Scottish benefits to fit better with wider entitlements and avoid these dilemmas for claimants. In the meantime, best practice for advisers is to help their clients make informed decisions before they claim.  

For detailed rules about short-term assistance, read Chapter 81 of the online Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook. You will need a subscription to be able to log in and read the content.