The Adult Disability Payment is now available in seven more council areas in Scotland ahead of national roll out on 29 August.
The benefit is now available to people in Aberdeenshire, City of Aberdeen, Fife, Moray, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, and South Ayrshire taking the total areas to 13.
The Adult Disability Payment replaces the UK Government’s Personal Independence Payment and provides financial support to people who are disabled, have a long-term health condition or have a terminal illness.
Minister for social security Ben Macpherson said: 'When people apply for our disability benefits, we are focused on making the right decisions first time to reduce the need for people to go through a redetermination or appeal. When Social Security Scotland is making a decision it will only need one formal piece of supporting information from a professional, such as a social care assessment, medical report or prescription list, and if required we will obtain that information for people.
'We will never use the private sector to carry out health assessments and there won’t be any degrading functional examinations such as asking a client to ‘touch their toes’.'
