What Short-term Assistance is

Short-term Assistance is a temporary payment you can apply for when you ask to challenge a decision to reduce or stop your:

• Adult Disability Payment
• Child Disability Payment
• Pension Age Disability Payment

While your challenge is ongoing, Short-term Assistance payments replace the amount Social Security Scotland reduced your longstanding disability benefit award by. This is so you do not have to manage on less money while you challenge the decision.

Your longstanding award is the disability benefit amount you received prior to your most recent review, which may be a scheduled review or an unscheduled review if you have reported a change in circumstances.

If you are claiming a disability benefit for the first time, your longstanding award is the first disability benefit award you received, prior to your re-determination.

You will not need to pay back any Short-term Assistance you’re entitled to. This means that it is not affected by the outcome of your re-determination or appeal.

Short-term Assistance will be repayable if it is later found that the original disability benefit award was applied for fraudulently and you were therefore not entitled to any associated Short-term Assistance. In addition, if you receive a higher amount of Short-term Assistance than you were entitled to in error, this could be recovered if this was an error you caused or contributed to, or an error a person could reasonably be expected to notice.