Professor John Robertson OBA
Above are the opening words of the final statement on the transition from a reserved system of social security for disabled people to one led and managed by the Scottish Government. They are an obvious place and an easy way for a journalist, under pressure, to begin and to frame, their report on a 66 page document.
BBC Scotland have headlined the report but, instead, have opened with:
Access to Scotland’s adult disability benefits should be made easier despite forecasts of a steep increase in claims and costs, an independent review has said.
to extract and to foreground two negative aspects – to cast doubt on the competence of an SNP initiative and to introduce doubts as to whether Scotland can afford even the proposed criteria.
What happened to kindness? If, as the report has it, many people mentioned that, wouldn’t a responsible piece of media reporting give attention to and discuss that? How many mentioned it? Who were they? How did they put it? Do tell us? Nope.
In the BBC report ‘kindness’ gets not one mention despite its prominence in the reviewer’s thoughts.
Only in paragraph 10 to we get this one wee quote from the reviewer:
She said it was “kinder in tone and more dignified in approach”.
Could that kindness be contrasted, for a headline-grabbing purpose?
Like in the headline above from the Independent?
Full report – https://www.gov.scot/publications/independent-review-adult-disability-payment-final-report-summary/pages/1/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Maybe some people will have difficulty accessing this benefit since the current system favours online applications and there are still many older people who have neither the access nor the ability to use online facilities -that’s just a fact of modern life.
However, to transfer from the DWP (ugh) to the ADP (yay) proved seamless in my man’s case. A couple of explanatory letters and Bob’s yer uncle. All done and first payment aleady received.
Today a request to complete a voluntary survey which I will gladly complete on his behalf since he is not able mentally or physically to do it himself.
There’s even a phone number you can call for help if you have a problem with the survey, PLUS a contact number if you need to get in touch re your benefits.
Well done Social Security Scotland.
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I think and hope with online applications people can get help from family or advice services and charities, like Age Scotland which is just one of many out there. I had to call Social security Scotland recently for my son and they are very busy, but it’s good there are various ways to contact them and fill in forms etc.
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The Scottish system is far more humane than the English DWP regime.
I just wish Scotland could have all benefits transferred because the dreaded ‘universal credit’ is an awful system to navigate even if you don’t have a disability. I guess all benefits being devolved would be unaffordable given the EngGov cutting the ‘block grant’? Scotland needs independence so that having full fiscal levers can be used to build on the SNP’s progressive policies. I say progressive, but policies such as their’s should be a normal way to run a country really. Or am I living in cloud cuckoo land… 🙂
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