[2024] UT 71
UTS/AS/24/0084
This is an appeal about Adult Disability Payment, brought by Social Security Scotland.
It is primarily about the date on which an award of ADP begins.
The case decides that regulation 35 of the Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Scotland) Regulations 2022 governs the beginning of entitlement to assistance.
In this case, entitlement commenced on the date the claimant (“GK”) telephoned SSS to a make a claim for ADP, and provided his name and date of birth, even though the full application was not completed at that time.
Lady Poole highlights that regulation 35 of the Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Scotland) Regulations 2022 (the ADP regulations) gives a choice of two dates for an award of ADP to start –
- the day that the name and date of birth of the claimant is given, provided the full application is made within eight weeks of that day (sub-paragraph 4), or a longer period where there is good reason for the delay (sub-paragraph 6); or
- a later day, where an application is made, but the necessary conditions are only satisfied at some point later in a 13 week period after that (sub-paragraph 2).
Pointing out that the claimant had suffered from his conditions for some time, Lady Poole concludes –
‘It follows that the date the FTS should have selected for the award to start was 13 January 2023, not 29 March 2023. The FTS erred in law by failing to apply regulation 35 of the ADP regulations, and the appeal on this ground is allowed.’ (paragraph 9)
