Adult Disability Payment - Audit Scotland Highlights Growing Funding Gap For Scottish Government

18th September 2025

The Scottish Government needs to set out how it will manage a funding gap created by its higher spending on devolved benefits.

Adult Disability Payment (ADP) is the largest of the devolved benefits and the replacement for the UK’s Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

Eligibility and payments for ADP and PIP are similar, but the ADP application and review processes are designed to be less onerous.

Main Points
£2.6 billion spent on Adult Disability Payment in 2023/24
£141 million funding gap
£770 million forecast funding gap by 2029/30

Around 500,000 people now receive the benefit. Of those, over 318,000 have been transferred from PIP to ADP, and nearly 160,000 are new ADP applicants.

Read the full Audit Scotland report HERE