Welcome to our new forum

Welcome to our new forum, created in response to requests from advisers for a space to discuss and share information relating to the range of new benefits and related issues in Scotland.

We consulted with you late last year on whether you’d like us to create a new forum, and while there were views for and against*, we wanted to respond positively to those of you who thought it would be useful ....

To kick-start proceedings, you’ll see that we’ve pre-populated the new forum with some existing threads that had been posted elsewhere ....

NB - we’re guessing that there is perhaps less of a demand for separate forums for advisers in Wales and Northern Ireland, but have purposefully named the new forum ‘Devolved benefit issues’ (rather than for example ‘Scottish benefit issues’) to be inclusive in also providing a shared space for the discussion of issues specific to Wales and Northern Ireland too ... so while we do anticipate that the forum will be dominated by issues relating to Scotland, do feel free to post here if you’re working in Wales or Northern Ireland.

*issues for and against included that similar topics will end up in different places ... eg someone might have a question re adult disability benefit, but at its core it might relate to quite generic issues that would also apply to PIP ... one person might post this in our new devolved benefits forum, and another might post it in our existing disability benefits forum. The other issue of course is you end up having a single forum for the whole range of benefits issues, from disability benefits, to discretionary support, to how the tribunal system is operating, to local Jobcentre practice and everything in between. And so on all these topics, there’d be scope for confusion as to where to post (and subsequently to find) relevant information.

But hey, let’s give it a go and see how it works out ...

Cheers - Shawn

Diolch yn fawr Shawn

Had to Google that ... 😂