Do you have to tell Social Security Scotland when something changes? Yes. If you get Adult Disability Payment, or have applied and are waiting for a determination, you must report anything that affects your condition or your needs, a stay of 28 days or more in hospital, a care home or legal detention, a house move and any change to your name or payment details. Report a change for the worse within one month and the higher rate is paid from the date you first met the criteria for it. Fail to report a change that reduces your entitlement and you can be asked to repay the difference.
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Try one activity free →Why reporting changes matters more under ADP
Adult Disability Payment awards have no fixed end date. Most are reviewed every two to ten years and some are never reviewed unless you say something has changed, so between reviews reporting a change is the only way your award goes up. Our guide on rolling ADP awards explains the cycle.
Legally, the duty comes from section 56 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, which Social Security Scotland places on you in your determination letter, and regulation 48 of the 2022 Regulations then requires a fresh determination, an unscheduled review, whenever they learn of a change that could alter your entitlement.
The changes you must report
Social Security Scotland publishes the list. You must tell them if:
- your condition gets better or worse in the longer term, including a new diagnosis or treatment that alters what you can do
- the level of help and care you need changes, or the support you need to get around changes
- you go into or come out of hospital, a hospice, a care home or residential care
- you go into or come out of prison, a detention facility or a residential educational establishment
- you move house, including moving away from Scotland temporarily or permanently
- you are awarded another benefit that might affect your entitlement
- your name, address or payment details change, or someone starts or stops acting for you
Two things are not on the list. First, day-to-day variation: Social Security Scotland's own wording is that conditions can vary from day to day and, if your overall needs remain the same, you do not need to tell them. A bad fortnight is not a change of circumstances; a pattern that has shifted for the longer term is. Second, money. ADP is not means-tested, so a new job, savings or a partner moving in are not ADP changes, whatever they mean for Universal Credit. The duty also covers an appointee acting for you.
How to report a change
Online. Social Security Scotland has an online change of circumstances form on its applications website, reached from the mygov.scot page "If your circumstances change".
By phone. Call free on 0800 182 2222, 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday except bank holidays, and note the date, the time and who you spoke to. Webchat runs the same hours and there is a BSL video service.
On paper. For a change in your health or needs there is a downloadable Change of Circumstances form, which you print and then upload or post. If you post it, the mailroom stamp counts as the date received, so keep a copy.
Have your National Insurance number, bank details and the date of the change ready. If the change is about your condition, do not be brief.
The one month rule: when a higher rate is paid from
If your needs have increased and you now meet the criteria for a higher rate, or for a component you did not have, the start date depends on how quickly you reported it. Social Security Scotland's decision making guide puts it like this:
- report the change within one month and the higher award starts on the date you first met the criteria for it
- report it after one month but within 13 months, with a good reason for the delay, and the same applies
- take longer than 13 months, or more than a month without a good reason, and the higher award starts on the date you reported it
A good reason means it was reasonable to take as long as you did, or you meant to report in time and made an honest mistake. The guide gives hospitalisation as an example and accepts that gradual or fluctuating changes can take longer than a month to notice.
A second rule catches people out: the 13 week backwards test. A higher award cannot begin until you have met at least one of its criteria for 13 weeks, and it must be likely you will keep meeting it for 39 weeks after that. So if your mobility worsened sharply after an accident in late July, the enhanced rate is paid from late October, provided you reported within a month. Report it the following spring without a good reason and it runs from the day you reported it; our guide to ADP back payments explains how arrears are worked out.
So report a longer-term change now and gather the evidence afterwards. The same applies while you are waiting for a determination: the case manager takes new information into account, if necessary as a split award, and the date of your Part 1 still fixes where entitlement begins, as our ADP timeline shows.
What happens after you report
Social Security Scotland will contact you to say whether the change may affect your payments and whether they need more information. A change in your condition or needs triggers an unscheduled review of your entitlement to both components, the backwards and forwards tests and the date the change should begin.
Your payments continue at the current rate while it is looked at: the official statistics confirm that clients remain in payment while awaiting a review decision. Most determinations are made on paper; the case manager can ask you for more, can approach the professionals you have named for supporting information and can arrange a consultation only where that is the only way to get what is needed. There is no published target for how long it takes, and Social Security Scotland has said it cannot report average review times, so plan on months. The outcome is a new determination with the usual rights: 42 days to ask for a re-determination.
How change of circumstances reviews turn out
Reporting a deterioration rarely invites a cut. Of 69,695 change of circumstances reviews completed by 30 April 2026, 36 per cent ended with a higher award and 59 per cent with no change; only a small remainder were reduced. When a reported change ends in no change, it is usually because the description did not show that a different descriptor now applies: four points to six on one activity changes nothing if the total stays between 8 and 11, as our points system guide shows.
If your condition has got worse: writing the change so it scores
A change of circumstances form is scored like Part 2 of the application. The case manager is asking whether, for each of the 12 activities, a different descriptor now describes you, and whether you can do the activity safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and within a reasonable time, the four tests in regulation 7 that our reliability criteria guide explains.
So structure what you send around the activities that have changed and write the before and the after for each. Before: "I could shower alone if I sat on a stool, most days." After: "Since the second fall in June I cannot get in or out of the shower without my daughter steadying me, and I wash twice a week instead of daily because of the pain afterwards." Say when the change started, which professional knows and what new treatment has not fixed. The techniques in what to write on Part 2 apply word for word, and a short statement from the person who helps you is often the most useful addition. Do not present your worst day as every day: case managers compare the change form with the original application.
If your condition has improved
The duty runs both ways. If your condition has improved for the longer term you must report that too, and prompt reporting is rewarded: where you notify within one month of when you could be expected to notice, the lower rate, or the end of the award, takes effect from the date of the new determination, and nothing is clawed back for the period in between. If you knowingly fail to notify, the lower award starts from the date you should have told them and everything paid above that rate since is recoverable.
Hospital, care home, hospice and prison
All of these rules are built on 28 days, and both admission and discharge must be reported as soon as reasonably practicable.
Hospital. If you are 18 or over and an in-patient in an NHS or other publicly funded hospital, both components are paid at £0 from the day after you have been in for 28 days, for as long as you stay (regulation 28). Separate stays are added together if there are 28 days or fewer between them. Payment restarts on discharge without a new application.
Care home. Only the daily living component is affected: it is paid at £0 after 28 days where the costs of your care are met from public funds (regulation 27). The mobility component continues, and so does daily living if you meet the full cost yourself or privately. If it does stop, any Carer Support Payment paid to someone caring for you is affected too.
Hospice. If you are terminally ill under the special rules, regulation 29 leaves your enhanced rates unaffected; our guide to the terminal illness rules covers the BASRiS form.
Prison and legal detention. For adults, both components are paid at £0 after a full 28 days in legal detention (regulation 30), and payments begin again on release. The Scottish Prison Service notifies Social Security Scotland, but report both dates yourself too, since release is the date payments restart from.
Moving, going abroad and reaching State Pension age
A move within Scotland is just an address change. A move to England, Wales or Northern Ireland ends ADP after 13 weeks, during which you should apply for Personal Independence Payment; see our guide on moving from Scotland. A temporary trip abroad must also be reported even though it usually does not stop payments: no limit inside the Common Travel Area, 13 weeks outside it and 26 weeks for medical treatment, as ADP and going abroad explains.
Reaching State Pension age does not end ADP; you stay on it rather than moving to Pension Age Disability Payment. But under regulation 25, once you have reached pension age the mobility component cannot be awarded for the first time or raised from standard to enhanced, unless a clinical judgement of terminal illness was made before pension age. An existing enhanced mobility award continues where it stems from substantially the same conditions. Daily living is not restricted, so a worsening there should still be reported and can still raise your award.
What not reporting can cost
Two consequences follow from an unreported change. The first is repayment: under section 63 of the 2018 Act you are liable to repay assistance given because of an error, including one caused by an unreported change, limited to the difference between what you got and what you should have got.
The second is criminal and narrower than people fear. Section 72 makes it an offence to fail to notify a change you had a duty to report, but only where you did not report it as soon as reasonably practicable, you had no reasonable excuse and you knew or ought to have known that the change might reduce or end your entitlement.
If the review reduces or stops your award
Sometimes a reported change does lead to a lower award. You then have the same rights as after any determination: 42 days to request a re-determination, 56 days for Social Security Scotland to complete it and 31 days to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland. Because an existing award has been reduced or stopped, you can also ask for Short-term Assistance, which pays the difference for as long as the challenge lasts and is not repayable if you lose; our guide on what to do when an ADP award is reduced sets out the sequence. Whichever way your award changes, tell your council and the Department for Work and Pensions, because Social Security Scotland does not pass it on.
A change form is scored like the application
The activities and descriptors are the same, and so are the mistakes. ADPexpert turns how your condition affects you now into clear, descriptor-focused answers across all 12 activities. Try one activity free.
Try one activity freeFrequently Asked Questions
What changes do I need to report for Adult Disability Payment?
A longer-term change in your condition or the help you need, a new diagnosis or treatment, going into or out of hospital, a hospice, a care home or legal detention, moving house or away from Scotland, another benefit that might affect ADP and any change to your name, address or bank details. Day-to-day variation does not need reporting.
How do I report a change of circumstances for ADP?
Online through Social Security Scotland's change of circumstances form, by phone free on 0800 182 2222 (8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday) or, for a change in your health or needs, on the downloadable Change of Circumstances form, which you upload or post. Note the date you reported it.
How long do I have to report a change for ADP?
As soon as reasonably practicable. If your needs have increased, reporting within one month means the higher rate is paid from the date you first met the criteria, and up to 13 months is accepted with a good reason. Later than that, the increase starts from the date you reported it.
Will my ADP payments stop while a change is being looked at?
No. You stay in payment at your current rate while the unscheduled review is carried out, and any increase is backdated under the one month rule. Payments only change once a new determination is made.
Does reporting that my condition has got worse mean a full review?
It leads to an unscheduled review of your entitlement, taking account of the change since your last determination. Of change of circumstances reviews completed by 30 April 2026, 36 per cent led to a higher award and 59 per cent to no change.
What happens if I do not report a change for ADP?
Anything paid above what you were entitled to can be recovered under section 63 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, and a lower award applies from the date you should have reported. Knowingly failing to report a change that reduces your entitlement, without a reasonable excuse, is an offence under section 72.
How long does an ADP change of circumstances take?
Social Security Scotland does not publish a target or an average for change of circumstances reviews. Bank details or an address are updated quickly; a review of your condition often takes months, and you stay in payment while you wait.