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Adult Disability Payment (ADP)

These are your rights to financial support in Scotland, if you're 16 to 65 years old and are disabled.

We know that many deaf people and families of deaf young people don't consider deafness to be a disability. However, even if you don't consider yourself or your deaf child to be disabled, you may still be eligible for disability benefits such as ADP.

Social Security Scotland (SSS) has published a British Sign Language (BSL) translation of their ADP factsheet.

What you need to know

What is ADP?

ADP is very similar to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. It's a disability benefit for people of working age, 16 to 65, who are deaf or disabled.

ADP will help towards some of the extra costs of living with a disability or long-term (three months or over) health condition. It is not means-tested or taxable, which means it doesn’t matter how much you earn or have in savings.

Eligibility

There are two parts to ADP; the daily living component and the mobility component. They are paid at the same rates as PIP.

Daily living component

You can claim the daily living component if you need more help with certain activities, things like:

  • preparing food and taking nutrition (eating and drinking)
  • managing therapy or monitoring a health condition
  • washing and bathing
  • communicating verbally
  • reading and understanding signs
  • symbols and words
  • engaging socially with other people face to face.

The standard rate is £68.10 a week and the enhanced rate is £101.75 a week.

Mobility component

You can claim the mobility component if you need help with:

  • planning and following a journey
  • moving around.

The standard rate is £26.90 a week and the enhanced rate is £71.00 a week.

Do I have to live in Scotland?

To claim ADP you must live in Scotland or another qualifying country. Citizen's Advice Scotland have more information about the residence and immigration rules that apply (under the heading Rules about living in Scotland).

When can I claim ADP?

ADP was rolled out across the whole of Scotland on 29 August 2022.

You can apply for ADP between 16 and retirement age in Scotland.

What if I already get PIP?

If you already get PIP, you cannot currently claim ADP. At some point during 2022 your claim will be automatically transferred to the new benefit. Payments will not be affected, and you should receive the same rates you previously received with PIP.

If you receive renewal forms for PIP before you are transferred, you should complete them and return them to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

How do I apply for ADP?

There a different ways you can apply for ADP.

  • You can make a new claim by going to the apply page on the Scottish Government website and applying on myaccount, which lets you save your progress to come back to when it suits you.
  • You can phone SSS on 0800 182 2222 to request a paper form and a prepaid return envelope or book an appointment for someone from SSS to help you fill in the form face to face. If you're a BSL user, use the contactSCOTLAND app to contact SSS by video relay.
  • If English isn’t your first language, you can contact SSS to apply over the phone with an interpreter or a paper application form. Interpreters and translated forms are available in over 100 different languages.

Additional help

If you need help accessing or filling in the application form you can contact the free SSS Local Delivery service. A specially trained client support adviser can answer any questions you have in a meeting at your home, in your local community, over the phone or a video call.

Alternatively, if you have questions about how to fill in the form you can contact our free Helpline by phone, text (SMS), SignVideo (video call with a BSL interpreter), contact form or live chat. If English isn't your first language, we can call you back with an interpreter in your preferred language for free.

Filling in the application form

The application is in two parts and should be completed within six weeks of each other. If you don’t think you’ll be able do this, contact SSS.

If you are transferring from Child Disability Payment (CDP) to ADP, you should be aware that the eligibility criteria for ADP is very different. Some people who were eligible for CDP may not qualify for ADP.

SSS will decide whether you should get ADP or not by looking at a range of activities. For each activity there is a list of difficulties you might have, called descriptors. The application form asks a series of questions about each activity.

If deafness is your only condition, then the questions on the form that are most relevant to you will be:

Washing and Bathing

For example, if you have to remove your hearing technology when showering, and this means you would not be able to hear a smoke alarm or someone shouting to warn you of a fire or other danger. If this apples to you make sure you put this down on the form.  

Communicating verbally

Make clear what your difficulties are with understanding speech and being understood yourself. Include if you:

  • use hearing technology, rely on lipreading or are a BSL user
  • sometimes need people to repeat words or phrases
  • find it more difficult to hear when there is background noise or lots of people talking at the same time.

Engaging socially with other people face-to-face

This is about your ability to interact with others and how you feel about interacting with other people. Living a normal daily life includes being able to engage in social activity. If your deafness means you find social situations stressful you should explain this.

Planning and following journeys

Include in your form whether you:

  • have difficulty when you’re outside, or you avoid going to unfamiliar places
  • don’t feel safe because you can’t hear a sound of something or someone approaching you from behind, like a person, car, or bike
  • are anxious about making journeys because of your hearing loss, so you avoid them.

Include supporting information in your application.

What supporting information should I include?

Including supporting information in your application is very important, as it helps you show SSS how your deafness affects you and the additional support you may need. If you have support needs in addition to your deafness, include your daily living and mobility needs related to other conditions or disabilities in the same application form.

To provide SSS with an accurate picture of your lived experience, you should include:

  • medical reports or letters of identification, such as hearing test results, audiograms, ABRs, discharge letters from hospitals and cochlear implant mapping reports
  • current symptoms, their severity, and the effect they have 
  • a daily diary of the additional support you need with daily living and mobility because of your deafness and/or additional needs
  • test results or certificates, care or treatment plans, and therapies or adaptations
  • social care assessments or social work assessments
  • educational support plans or reports or letters from your place of education
  • the supporting information form filled out by someone who knows or cares for you.

Supporting information needs to be submitted within 28 days of your application and can be uploaded online and sent in the post (or a mixture of the two). If you’re sending important documents via post, you should send photocopies.

If you’re struggling to find or collect any of these pieces of supporting information, SS can ask relevant professionals or organisations for information to support your application on your behalf.

Assessment

SSS may contact you after you have submitted your application to get more information about some of your answers. They may also ask for additional supporting information, to help them make their decision.

SSS says it will only invite you to an assessment if it's the only way to make a decision on your claim. If you’re invited to an assessment, you’re allowed to take someone with you. You can also ask for it to be done in a face-to-face meeting, over the telephone or via a video call. Whatever suits you.

ADP decision

Determination (decision)

When applying for benefits in Scotland, the decision to award you ADP or not is called a determination.

You should receive a decision from SSS six to eight weeks after you have submitted your form and they have all the information they need.

If your application has been successful and you are happy with the amount you have been awarded, your ADP payments should start immediately.

If you are unhappy with your decision, you can ask for a re-determination.

Challenging a decision

What is a re-determination?

Re-determination is the process SSS uses to review a benefits decision. A different team will look at the decision to refuse an application or the amount awarded and will make a new determination. Fill in this form on their website.

Read the letter explaining the decision carefully. If you ask for a re-determination then you should point out anything in this letter that is wrong or inaccurate. The letter should tell you which activities you have scored points for and those you didn’t. 

You have 42 days to submit your re-determination form. If you miss the 42-day time limit you can still ask for a re-determination. You’ll have to explain why your request is late and your request might not be accepted.  

SSS have 56 days to complete the re-determination.

Appealing an ADP decision

If you’re unhappy with your re-determination decision you have 31 days from the decision to appeal. If you miss this, you can still appeal but you must explain why your request is late and your appeal may not be accepted. 

If SSS have taken longer than 56 days to complete a re-determination you can also ask for an appeal.

Your appeal is decided by the First Tier Tribunal, which is independent of SSS. You can choose whether to attend the Tribunal in person, have a remote hearing (telephone or possibly video) or have the appeal decided on the papers. If you have a hearing, you will be asked questions about your disability or long-term health condition.

What is a review?

SSS may choose to review your current ADP award, to make sure you are being paid the right amount. They will ask you to provide more information. A review isn’t the same as a re-determination.

They will ask you to provide more information about the impact of your disability and may request updated supporting information. They may decide to stop your ADP or change the amount you have been awarded. You can apply for a re-determination of a review decision.

For more information about ADP, see the Scottish Government website.