Devolution of disability benefits: evaluation strategy

Prospective timescales

Child Disability Payment launched in pilot form from July 2021, with full national launch for new applications scheduled from Autumn 2021. This will be followed by the introduction of Adult Disability Payment with a pilot in Spring 2022 and full national launch for new applications by Summer 2022.The timeline below shows the phasing for the different activities involved in policy evaluation using the approach outlined, though not the size, scope or length of them.

It also gives an indicative timetable of when evaluation activity may begin, though not report. This timetable allows for the staged launch of the individual benefits and the need to take account of the experience of enough clients, across the different forms of disability benefits. However, it may change as data availability and other feasibility issues become clearer over the course of implementation and beyond.

During 2021-22 the main focus will be to define the size, scope and research questions for each individual thematic evaluation project, and assess the potential methods and data sources available, which may also impact on the evaluation timetable below.