Opening a letter that drops your Adult Disability Payment from enhanced to standard, or stops it altogether, is frightening. The payment may cover a carer, a mobility car or the difference between managing and not managing. The important thing to know straight away is that Scotland has a safety net most people have never heard of. When an existing award is cut or stopped and you challenge it, you can keep money coming in the whole time you fight the decision, and you never have to pay it back. This guide explains exactly how a reduction happens, how to protect your income and how to overturn a determination you believe is wrong.
Because most Adult Disability Payment determinations in Scotland are made on the papers, a reduction almost always comes down to what was written and scored, not to your health suddenly improving. That gives you a clear line of attack: show, in plain terms, that the points were wrong.
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Try one activity free →Why an award gets reduced or stopped
Adult Disability Payment awards run on a rolling basis with no fixed end date, but most are reviewed at some point to check you are still getting the right amount. A reduction usually lands at one of these moments:
The order of the steps matters and is the same whatever caused the reduction. See our overview of challenging a determination.
- At a scheduled review. Light-touch reviews generally come round every 2 to 10 years. Social Security Scotland looks again at how your conditions affect you and, if the new determination scores fewer points, your rate can drop.
- After you report a change. If you told them something changed, the whole award can be looked at afresh, not just the part you flagged.
- After a consultation. If a consultation was arranged and the notes did not capture your worst and typical days, the points can come out lower than they should.
None of these requires your condition to have got better. A common and unfair outcome is a reduction where nothing about your health has changed at all. That is precisely the kind of determination the re-determination process exists to correct.
Step one: protect your income with Short-term Assistance
This is the part Scotland does differently from the rest of the UK, and it matters enormously. Short-term Assistance is a payment that covers the gap when an existing award is reduced or stopped and you are challenging that decision. If your enhanced daily living dropped to standard, it covers the difference. If your award was stopped entirely, it can cover the full previous amount.
It keeps paying right through your re-determination and, if you go on to appeal, all the way through the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland. Crucially, it is not repayable. Even if your challenge does not succeed, you do not owe the Short-term Assistance back. The whole point is that no one in Scotland should be too afraid of a debt to challenge a cut to their money. If your cut followed a review, our guide to how long ADP reviews take sets out the outcome data and the deadlines involved.
Step two: ask for a re-determination
A re-determination means Social Security Scotland looks at your case again with fresh eyes. You must ask within 42 days of the determination letter. If you are past that, you can still ask up to a year later if you have a good reason for the delay, such as illness or hospital admission. Once they accept a valid request, Social Security Scotland has 56 days to reach a new determination.
What you write matters more than how long you write for. See our guide to the re-determination letter for how to structure it around the descriptors rather than around the decision.
Do not just tick a box asking them to look again. Explain, activity by activity, why the points are wrong. The reliability rule under regulation 7 is your strongest tool here. An activity only counts as something you can do if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. If you cannot manage that on most days, you should be treated as unable to do it, even if you can manage once on a good day.
What to put in your re-determination request
- Name the exact activities where you believe points were missed or removed.
- For each, describe a typical bad day and how often those days happen.
- Point to reliability: what is unsafe, what takes far too long, what you cannot repeat, what falls below an acceptable standard.
- Flag any supporting information the determination seems to have ignored or never had.
- Say clearly you want Short-term Assistance while the challenge is ongoing.
Social Security Scotland has a duty to help gather supporting information, and case managers can request it themselves from the professionals you give permission to contact. You do not need one document for every condition. One reliable piece of formal information about a condition responsible for more than a minor part of your needs can be enough to shift a determination.
Not sure how to word your challenge?
ADPexpert turns your conditions into clear answers for all 12 activities, written in the language the descriptors are scored against, so your re-determination speaks the criteria your case is scored against. Try one activity free.
Try one activity freeStep three: appeal to the First-tier Tribunal if needed
If the re-determination outcome still leaves you worse off than you should be, you can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Social Security Chamber). You have 31 days from the re-determination outcome to lodge it. The tribunal is independent of Social Security Scotland and can look at your whole case again.
You cannot normally go straight to a tribunal. The re-determination stage comes first. There is one important exception: if Social Security Scotland fails to complete your re-determination within the 56 days, they must notify you, and you then gain a direct right of appeal against the original determination without waiting any longer.
A worked example
Take someone on enhanced daily living and standard mobility. At a review, a consultation is arranged and the notes record that they made a cup of tea and walked to the room unaided. The new determination drops daily living to standard, costing them a rate band. Nothing about their condition has changed. Here is the sequence that protects them:
- Within 42 days, they ask for a re-determination and request Short-term Assistance, which starts covering the lost difference.
- They explain that on most days preparing a meal is unsafe because of drops and dizziness, that washing takes three times as long, and that the good moment seen at the consultation is not typical.
- Their case manager, with permission, gathers a short letter from the occupational therapist already involved.
- The re-determination restores enhanced daily living. Short-term Assistance stops, the correct rate resumes, and nothing has to be repaid.
Had the re-determination failed, the same person could have appealed to the First-tier Tribunal within 31 days, with Short-term Assistance still in payment throughout.
Frequently Asked Questions
My ADP has been reduced after a review. Can I keep my old payment while I challenge it?
Yes, through Short-term Assistance. When an existing award is reduced or stopped and you ask for a re-determination, it covers the difference between your old and new amounts, right through the re-determination and any appeal. It is not repayable even if the challenge does not succeed.
How long do I have to challenge a reduced or stopped ADP award?
You have 42 days from the date on the determination letter to ask for a re-determination. If you miss that, you can still ask up to a year later with a good reason. Social Security Scotland then has 56 days to look at your case again.
Do I have to pay Short-term Assistance back if I lose?
No. It is not repayable regardless of the outcome. The only narrow exception is where the original award was obtained through fraud. It exists so that fear of a debt never stops anyone challenging a reduction.
Why was my ADP reduced when my condition has not improved?
A reduction usually follows a review where the new determination scored fewer points, often because a consultation or review form did not capture how you are on most days. It does not require your health to have improved. The reliability rule under regulation 7 still applies.
What happens if Social Security Scotland does not decide my re-determination in time?
If they miss the 56 day deadline, they notify you and you gain a direct right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland against the original determination. You do not have to keep waiting, and your Short-term Assistance continues.
Can I appeal a reduced ADP award to a tribunal?
Yes, but only after a re-determination. If the re-determination outcome still leaves you unhappy, you can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland within 31 days of the outcome.
Should I report a change if my condition has got worse rather than challenge the reduction?
They are different routes. A re-determination challenges a determination you think is already wrong. Reporting a change tells them your needs have increased since the award. If the reduction itself was wrong, ask for a re-determination within 42 days. If your condition has genuinely worsened, you can also report that separately on 0800 182 2222.