In Scotland
I’m glad I had Cheryl [as my advocate]. I was given empowerment to complete it myself, but then Cheryl would say, I don’t think it means that, it means this. I’m lucky, I wasn’t on my own.
VoiceAbility has been working in Scotland since 2022, providing benefits advocacy, and other independent advocacy services. We’re committed to working in partnership with community groups, advocacy organisations and government.
We spoke to three of the 4000 people we’ve supported so far to access benefits from Social Security Scotland (the service is available to anyone who identifies as disabled as well as parents and carers).
They shared their stories with us..
Services in Scotland
Where our advocates are located
Useful resources
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I just wanted to get involved in something…this looked like the perfect blend of charity community work and getting some skills for future jobs.
Volunteer in Scotland
Are you looking for more experience? Would you like to give back to your local community?
You could help with events, networking and awareness raising in your local community as a Service Team volunteer. If you have or want more experience directly supporting people, you could become a Support Session volunteer.
I’m lucky, I wasn’t on my own.
Gordon’s story
When Gordon applied for Adult Disability Payment, he encountered a lot of barriers.
“I’m glad I had Cheryl [as my advocate]. We had three or four meetings to get the form complete as we couldn’t find time to do it in the community centres and libraries, as they weren’t always open – it was the school holidays when we started the process. We ended up having to go from library to library, and my local library has closed so we had to go out of my village.
“Fife’s very rural – it’s not like Edinburgh where you can jump on the bus for £2.50. If you’re in a village, it’s a problem to apply.
“Things like that put an obstacle in front of people like myself, and people who are far worse.
“The form – a lot of the time the questions were confusing, we weren’t sure exactly what they meant. I was given empowerment to complete it myself, but then Cheryl would say, I don’t think it means that, it means this. Sometimes we weren’t sure, but we would talk about it. I’m lucky, I wasn’t on my own.
“People on their own might end up putting the wrong information in and not get the right result.
“We spent a lot of time talking about what was the right answer, what goes in what box – my advocate would tell me, there’s another box down here that that goes in. Another good reason why it’s a good idea to have an advocate when you’re filling out the form.”