Scotland rebuilt the challenge process on purpose: different names, different deadlines, and one safety net the DWP system has never had. If your Pension Age Disability Payment decision is wrong - refused, or the lower rate where nights are real - here is the route, step by step.
See one care question written free
No card, no sign-up - pick your country and watch one real answer appear before you read another word.
Try the free preview →Step 1: re-determination (42 days)
The first challenge is a re-determination: a different team at Social Security Scotland takes a completely fresh look and makes a new decision - not a review of the old one. You have 42 calendar days from being told the decision to ask (late requests can be accepted up to a year with a good reason). Ask by phone on 0800 182 2222, on the form that came with the decision, online, or by post to PO Box 10303, Dundee DD1 9FY.
Step 2: Social Security Scotland's own deadline (56 days)
They must complete the re-determination within 56 calendar days of receiving your request. If they cannot, they must tell you - and you gain the right to go straight to appeal without waiting. Scotland's process holds itself to deadlines, not just you.
Step 3: appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (31 days)
Still wrong after re-determination? Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland within 31 calendar days of the re-determination decision (late appeals possible up to a year). The tribunal is independent, hearings can be by phone, video or in person - and attending beats a paper decision, because a panel that can ask you about a real Tuesday finds the truth faster than paperwork can.
The Scottish safety net: Short-term Assistance
The mindset
A fresh determination is a second chance at the same test: help or support needed by day, by night, or both - including help you do not currently get, and help you only need sometimes. Before you write the request, re-read your copy of the application through one question: does it show my nights, my falls, and how long I can safely be left? Whatever it undersold, the re-determination is where you say it plainly.
What to put in the re-determination request
The request itself can be made by phone on 0800 182 2222 or in writing to Social Security Scotland, PO Box 10303, Dundee DD1 9FY - but whichever channel carries it, the content should do three jobs:
- Say plainly that you want a re-determination of the decision, naming its date.
- Answer the reasons, not just the outcome. Take the notice of determination point by point and put the missing facts against each - in the same concrete units that win these cases everywhere: times per day, nights per week, minutes per episode, what happens without help.
- Add what is new: a fortnight of the care needs diary, a paragraph from whoever helps you, any clinic letter that has arrived since the application.
Keep a copy, note the date it went, and remember the Scottish definition of attention explicitly includes prompting and motivation - if reminding and encouragement were undersold the first time, this is the place to put them back in.
Missed the 42 days? Scotland allows a year, with reasons
The 42-day window is the rule, but a late request can be accepted for up to a year where there is a good reason - illness, bereavement, a hospital stay, or the letter simply not being understood. Explain the delay honestly in a sentence or two at the top. The year is a safety net, not a plan: evidence goes stale and needs drift, so the strongest challenges are still the prompt ones.
How the Scottish road differs from the DWP's
| Scotland (PADP) | England, Wales & NI (AA) | |
|---|---|---|
| First step | Re-determination | Mandatory reconsideration |
| Time to ask | 42 days (up to 1 year with good reason) | 1 month (up to 13 months with reasons) |
| Deadline on the government's answer | 56 days, with a direct right of appeal if missed | None |
| Appeal window | 31 days to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland | 1 month from the reconsideration notice |
| Money while a reduction is challenged | Short-term Assistance, non-repayable | No equivalent |
The GB process, for readers on the other side of the border, is covered in what to do if refused.
The tribunal, Scottish edition
If the re-determination stands the decision up, the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Social Security Chamber) takes a completely fresh look - independent of Social Security Scotland, free, and built for people without lawyers. The 31-day window runs from the re-determination decision, with late appeals possible up to a year with good reason. Hearings can be in person, by video or by phone, and attending usually serves claimants better than a papers-only decision, because the panel can ask about your actual days and nights - the very material a thin form left out. Bring the same evidence spine as the re-determination, and answer as the form should have: plainly, worst days included.
Where to spend your energy, by outcome
Award reduced or stopped? Ask for Short-term Assistance alongside the re-determination - the old amount keeps flowing while the challenge runs, and it is not repayable even if you lose. Then build the evidence at leisure.
Refused outright? There is nothing to keep flowing, so speed is the strategy: request the re-determination early in the 42 days, start the diary the same day, and let the 56-day duty work for you - the clock on Social Security Scotland starts when your request lands. Either way, the underlying test being argued about is the same day-and-night test as everywhere else - the rate guide and falls and supervision show what the winning material looks like, and how to apply covers doing it right from the start next time a form is in front of you.
What Short-term Assistance is worth in practice
Put numbers on the safety net and its point becomes obvious. A reduction from the higher to the lower rate is £37.90 a week - £164 a month - and a challenge can take months across the 56-day duty and a tribunal listing. Short-term Assistance keeps the old amount flowing for that whole stretch, and it is not repayable even if the challenge ultimately fails. The GB system asks claimants to fight a reduction while living on the reduced amount; Scotland deliberately does not. If a notice of determination cuts your award, ask for Short-term Assistance in the same breath as the re-determination - it is a request, not an automatic add-on.
Keep the language Scottish
Templates and advice written for the DWP world need translating before they touch a Scottish challenge - decision letters here are notices of determination, the first challenge is a re-determination (never "mandatory reconsideration"), the deadline is 42 days (not one month), the tribunal is the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, and the terminal-illness form is BASRiS. The substance transfers - the day-and-night test is identical - but a letter using the wrong system's vocabulary invites confusion at exactly the moment you want the case worker nodding along. Our Scotland hub keeps the full glossary.
After a win - and after a loss
A successful re-determination or appeal corrects the original decision, so the money runs from the original entitlement, not from the date you won - months of difference arriving as arrears. A loss at re-determination is simply the halfway point: the 31-day tribunal window opens, fresh eyes with real independence. A loss at tribunal still is not necessarily the end - a further appeal on a point of law exists - but that is the stage to bring an adviser in rather than press on alone. What never changes across all of it: dated, concrete, minute-counted evidence of the days and nights, which is why the diary you start today matters more than any template.
And keep the calendar honest: 42 days is six weeks, which shrinks fast around hospital appointments and slow post. Write the deadline date on the notice of determination itself the day it arrives, and treat the halfway mark as your private deadline for having the request drafted.
Six weeks to ask, eight weeks for their answer, a month to appeal: three clocks, all beatable, and a safety net the rest of the UK does not have. Use all four.
Scotland built this process to be used without a lawyer - so use it: promptly, concretely, and in its own vocabulary.
Common questions
How long do I have to challenge a PADP decision?
42 calendar days from being told the decision to request a re-determination - and Social Security Scotland then has 56 days to respond. Late requests can be accepted up to a year with good reason.
What is a re-determination?
A completely fresh decision by a different team at Social Security Scotland - not a review of the old one. It is the compulsory first step before any appeal.
What if Social Security Scotland misses its 56-day deadline?
They must tell you, and you gain the right to appeal directly to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland without waiting for their answer.
How do I appeal after a re-determination?
To the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland within 31 calendar days of the re-determination decision. Hearings can be by phone, video or in person - taking part is stronger than a paper decision.
Will my payments stop while I challenge a reduced award?
Ask for Short-term Assistance: it continues payment at the old level while the re-determination or appeal runs, and it is not repayable even if you lose.
What should I put in my re-determination request?
What the decision got wrong, pointed at your real pattern - especially nights, falls and supervision - plus any new evidence: a diary, a tally, a letter. New information is allowed and welcome.
Is this the same as a DWP Mandatory Reconsideration?
Same role, different rules: Scotland gives 42 days rather than one month, binds itself to a 56-day response, and adds Short-term Assistance. The vocabulary differs too - determinations, not decisions.
Want the form written for you?
Answer simple questions about the help needed by day and by night, and we write every care answer, ready to copy onto the form.
Try one question free →