Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-35939

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 31 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of any delays in receiving disability benefits on children and young people with cancer, and their families, particularly in respect of (a) financial pressures and (b) emotional wellbeing.

We fully acknowledge that a cancer diagnosis will be a difficult time. That is why Social Security Scotland continues to prioritise decision-making, with the last nine months of official statistics for Child Disability Payment showing Social Security Scotland has made decisions on new applications almost twice as fast as in the previous financial year.

To date Child Disability Payment has paid out over £1 billion to families with disabled children. 74% of people surveyed in the Social Security Scotland Client Survey: 2023-24 gave a high rating for how much their payment(s) had helped make a difference to their life and helped them pay for what they needed.

There is a dedicated application route for terminally ill children and young people, with previously published data showing that applications are processed in an average of three working days.

Question reference: S6W-35941

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 31 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review and aim to simplify the disability benefit application process for children and young people diagnosed with cancer, including reducing any delays caused where medical evidence is required to determine eligibility.

For disability benefit applications, Social Security Scotland requires one piece of supporting evidence on an individual’s condition or disability to understand the impact their condition has on their daily life.

Applicants can request Social Security Scotland collects supporting evidence on their behalf. While gathering this information can take time, it allows for robust decision-making.

Social Security Scotland works with Local Authorities, Health Boards and GP practices across the country to make it faster and easier for them to send supporting information. Social Security Scotland also encourages people to provide supporting information which they may not realise they have, such as prescription lists, medical reports, and social care assessments.

The Adult and Child Disability Payment application forms also invite clients to tell Social Security Scotland about any supporting information to allow their application to be processed more efficiently. Supporting Information can be uploaded digitally or sent to Social Security Scotland in the post.

Social Security Scotland has a dedicated application route for terminally ill children and young people, and anyone in Scotland diagnosed with a terminal illness by their healthcare professional can apply for disability benefits under Special Rules for Terminal Illness.

Social Security Scotland has reduced processing times for disability benefits, with latest statistics showing decisions on new applications have been made faster than the previous financial year. Latest statistics can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Statistics.

Question reference: S6W-35937

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 31 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of concerns raised by Young Lives vs Cancer that, currently, there is an average six-month waiting time between a child or young person's cancer diagnosis and their receiving their first disability benefit payment, what action it can take to reduce this.

We fully recognise that this is a challenging time for families. Importantly, no-one needs a formal diagnosis to apply for Child or Adult Disability Payment; decisions about eligibility are based on the individual’s level of needs, rather than a diagnosis.

Once a decision is made the award will commence from the date of application where the conditions of entitlement were met at this point.

We urge anyone applying on behalf of a terminally ill child to use our fast-tracked route so that they and their family can access the maximum level of financial support they are entitled to – quickly and with dignity.

Question reference: S6W-35942

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 31 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that children and young people with cancer, and their carers and families, receive clear, timely and accessible communication from Social Security Scotland regarding their disability benefit applications.

Social Security Scotland continues to review and improve how people access its service, including how the organisation communicates with applicants and clients.

The application forms for Adult and Child Disability Payment were designed and developed in consultation with stakeholders to ensure the values of dignity, fairness and respect were embedded throughout.

The application forms allow clients, and their representatives, to tell the organisation how they would prefer to be contacted. It also asks specific questions to help Social Security Scotland understand and respond to any additional accessibility needs.

Through client feedback surveys and panels, clients have told Social Security Scotland they would like choice in how they are contacted. With the client, or their representative’s permission, Social Security Scotland will automatically acknowledge receipt of an application form and provide updates via text and/or email as the application proceeds through the key stages.

The latest Client Survey shows the majority of Adult and Child Disability Payment respondents said their experience of applying for disability benefits was “very good” or “good”. The full survey results can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Client Survey 2023-2024

Question reference: S6W-35940

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 31 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of concerns raised by Young Lives vs Cancer that almost half of patients in Scotland finish their cancer treatment before receiving a decision regarding disability benefit claims due to lengthy waits, what assessment it has made of the adequacy of Social Security Scotland’s disability benefits processing times for children and young people with cancer.

There are a number of factors that impact on how long it takes Social Security Scotland to make a decision on disability benefit applications, including the time taken to gather the supporting information required to make a decision on an application.

Social Security Scotland continues to work with Local Authorities, Health Boards and GP practices across the country to make it faster and easier for them to send supporting information, and is seeing improvements.

The last nine months of official statistics for Child Disability Payment shows Social Security Scotland has made decisions on new applications almost twice as fast as in the previous financial year. The latest official statistics publication can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Child Disability Payment: high level statistics to 31 December 2024.

The latest Adult Disability Payment official statistics publication shows Social Security Scotland has made faster decisions on applications over the last year, with average processing times decreasing significantly in the last ten months, when compared to the previous financial year. Latest Adult Disability Payment statistics can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Adult Disability Payment statistics to 31 January 2025

Social Security Scotland has a dedicated application route for terminally ill children and young people, and anyone in Scotland diagnosed with a terminal illness by their healthcare professional can apply for disability benefits under Special Rules for Terminal Illness. Published data shows that applications under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness are currently processed within three working days for Child Disability Payment and two working days for Adult Disability Payment.

Question reference: S6O-04494

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the finance secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the allocation of additional funding for health and social care, in light of the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board's reported plans to end funding for its third sector grant programme.

Question reference: S6W-35449

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to provide vehicles and equipment under the Accessible Vehicles and Equipment Scheme, from organisations other than Motability, it has (a) approved and (b) rejected in each of the last five years, and what steps it is taking to broaden the range and scope of such providers, in particular those that are independent businesses or social enterprises.

Question reference: S6W-35116

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the outcomes of the £10 million that it designated in 2023-24 to support people with long COVID, including how this was spent.

The Scottish Government’s £10 million long COVID Support Fund was announced in September 2021 and resource has been allocated from the fund from the financial year 2022-2023 onwards. The following table provides an overview of funding recipients from the start of the financial year 2022-23 to 28 February 2025. Allocations to NHS boards are made in tranches across the financial year to account for any slippage in programme delivery. It is anticipated that further allocations will be made to NHS boards from the fund before the end of this financial year, and in the financial year 2025-26.

The 2025-2026 budget outlines £7.586 million for the ‘Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue and other similar conditions’ budget line. This represents a £4.5m uplift to the 2024-2025 long COVID budget line.

Organisation	Purpose	Funding allocated 2022-2023	Funding allocated 2023-2024	Funding allocated 2024-2025 (as of 28 Feb 2025)
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	Assist provision of healthcare support to people with long-term effects of COVID-19.	£131,288	£143,152	£131,288
NHS Borders		£35,509	£50,727	£38,319
NHS Dumfries and Galloway		£55,598	£55,598	£55,598
NHS Fife		£124,636	£124,636	124,636
NHS Forth Valley		£99,414	£133,896	£99,414
NHS Grampian		£178,393	£254,847	£178,393
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde		£416,618	£583,446	£416,618
NHS Highland		£83,749	£167,586	£117,310
NHS Lanarkshire		£320,007	£320,007	£224,005
NHS Lothian		£260,551	£378,412	£268,168
NHS Orkney		£14,716	£14,716	£10,301
NHS Shetland		£9,573	£9,573	£9,573
NHS Tayside		£194,620	£194,620	£138,330
NHS Western Isles		£19,988	£19,988	£13,992
NHS National Services Scotland	Operation of National Strategic Network for long COVID.	£101,498	£180,916	£126,641
NHS National Services Scotland	Procurement of C-19 YRS digital tool.	0	0	£124,781
NHS National Services Scotland	Clinical safety assessment of C-19 YRS digital tool.	0	£49,728	0
NHS National Services Scotland	Evaluation of data gathered through C-19 YRS digital tool.	0	£62,500	0
Smarts	Production and editing of NHS inform case study videos.	£5,112	£5,676
Progressive Partnership	Recruitment of participants for NHS inform user experience research and case study videos.	£9,450
Leith Agency	Development of creative brief and options for potential marketing campaign	£9,174
Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland	Integration of long COVID support application within Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland’s case management system.	£28,904
Covid Aid	Delivery of long COVID advertising and signposting activity, development of mobile phone application for Covid Aid Support Community, delivery of Covid Aid/ Let’s Get on With it Together (LGOWIT) Self-Management Programme, development of online support community for people with long COVID	£144,095
Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland	Delivery of long COVID Support Groups within Glasgow City and West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership areas.	£13,345
Long Covid Scotland	Investment in systems and equipment required to widen organisation’s impact. Administrative capacity to support development of educational resources.	£25,000
Scottish Ballet	Delivery of the ‘Emerge’ programme.	£3,035
Scottish Opera	Expanding course capacity on the ‘Breathe Cycle II’ project.	£86,892
Thistle Foundation	Delivery of a ‘Good Conversations’ training programme for healthcare staff and expansion of national Self-Management and Rehabilitation programme.	£106,343
Total		£2,477,508	£2,750,024	£2,077,367

An analysis of Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM) data provided by 701 patients accessing NHS long COVID support showed they reported that they got somewhat better in symptoms and abilities over the first six months. Despite improvements, many reported that they still had major health issues compared to before having COVID.

The report notes that long COVID can be a fluctuating condition, meaning there is not necessarily a linear trend of improvement or deterioration in the symptom burden, functional disability, and overall health of patients. Therefore, care needs to be taken in drawing any conclusions changes in PROM scores, particularly when over a short space of time. The full report is accessible at NHS Scotland Service Evaluation of Long-COVID Services – Long COVID.

Question reference: S6W-35117

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support is currently in place for people with long COVID.

Since April 2022, we have allocated over £6.2 million to territorial NHS boards to supplement core funding and support their responses to meeting the healthcare needs of people with long COVID. This has supported boards to undertake a range of activities including the development of long COVID rehabilitation pathways and providing additional capacity to existing services supporting people with symptoms resulting from long COVID.

Care and support for people with long COVID is being provided across the full range of services delivered by our NHS. This includes assessment in a setting close to home by local primary care teams, and referral to community-based rehabilitation services or secondary care settings for further investigation of specific complications where clinically appropriate.

Scotland’s national health information service NHS inform has a dedicated long COVID microsite containing information and advice on common signs and symptoms associated with long COVID and when to seek further advice from a healthcare professional. This is accessible at Long-term effects of COVID-19 | NHS inform.

Question reference: S6W-35118

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the outcomes of the long COVID support service pilot that took place across Edinburgh in 2022-23, including whether it considers it to have been successful.

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