Bid to end benefits red tape for disabled

Disabled benefits claimants in Scotland could be spared controversial assessments for employment support allowance under new proposals from the Scottish Government.

Jeane Freeman, the Scottish social security minister, said she had discussed a “once for Scotland” approach on benefits assessments with UK counterparts in meetings this week.

The plans could see assessments for Personal Independence Payments, carried out by a new Scottish social security agency, shared with the Department for Work and Pensions so that disabled claimants do not have to resubmit their details.

Ms Freeman, who will call for more power to mitigate the impact of Universal Credit when she gives evidence to MPS today, said: “Rather than have people do two assessments, which seems a waste of public money, they could use all the information we have as their core assessment for ESA with maybe some additional elements they need.”

With the first Scottish social security payments being made this year, Ms Freeman pledged the new agency’s IT system will be rolled out with close oversight from auditors. “I have no intention of getting to the end of this parliament with a system that fails,” she said.