Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment - updated April 2025

Test Run of Business Forms

The proposal in the Bill to recover social security assistance from compensation awards requires Scottish Ministers to provide a certificate of recoverable assistance on request to the injured person or any individual who they think will receive a compensation payment in respect of the injured person. A certificate of recoverable assistance is a certificate which specifies, for each form of recoverable social security assistance, the amount of assistance which has been, or is likely to be, received during the relevant period. In practice, Social Security Scotland acting on behalf of Scottish Ministers will issue the certificate of recoverable assistance. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with Social Security Programme to explore delivery methods for recovering assistance from compensation awards and develop associated forms.

The compensation recovery proposal included in the Bill does not require new forms to be introduced by business. Depending on the eventual delivery method decided upon there is the possibility that new forms might be required, or existing forms amended. In the event that new forms for business are required the Scottish Government is committed to working with the insurance sector to develop and test run the forms with those who will be using them to ensure that they are fit for purpose and user-friendly.

It is not anticipated that new forms for business will be required for the other proposals included in the Bill.

Changes will be needed to the existing Social Security Scotland forms that clients use to request re-determinations and make appeals. Changes would include adding information to the forms about late re-determination and appeals timescales. The Scottish Government anticipate that only minor amendments would be required to existing letters and forms, which have already undergone rigorous user research.