UK Government policies have driven many disabled people and their families to breaking point, according to UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston.

As part of his report on the UK he particularly highlighted the impact of policies on disability benefits. Checks on people’s entitlement for benefits are often superficial, dismissive and contradict the evidence of their own doctors, he said. Although the UK Government reacted with surprise and disbelief, we know much of this already.

Notoriously the reforms of incapacity benefit were meant to save 20 per cent of the budget, but introducing Personal Independence Payments (PIP) instead increased costs to the taxpayer by 15-20 per cent, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Meanwhile, the impact on claimants has been little short of horrifying, and we didn’t need Philip Alston to tell us. A 2017 study showed the proportion of disability benefit claimants attempting to take their own lives had doubled in the eight years since work capability assessments were brought in. Terminally ill claimants were invited to reassessments. People with mental health issues and conditions such as multiple sclerosis who turned up on a ‘good day’ were arbitrarily denied benefits by assessors who overlooked any evidence that on their ‘bad days’ work was impossible.

Sanctions were not as high for those on Jobseekers’ Allowance, but still left tens of thousands of vulnerable people without an income.

Now the Scottish Government has the chance to put it all right, with the devolution of powers over support for disabled people. Ministers have been consulting about the new benefits it is putting in place. The consultation closed on Tuesday.

They propose that Disability Assistance for Children and Young People (DACYP) will provide the support under 18s and their families need with additional costs caused by disability. Disability Assistance for Working Age People will replace the help PIP is meant to offer adults who need help with aspects of daily living. And Disability Assistance for Older People will support people who have reached pensionable age with any care needs.

The plan is to simplify the system and cut down on assessments - which will no longer be carried out by private sector contractors. Specialist advisers aim to eliminate the situations where physiotherapists or occupational therapists are called upon to make decisions about people with medical disabilities they have no knowledge of.

But there is a danger that the new Social Security Scotland will replicate some of the many flaws of the DWP’s complex and infuriating system, such as its points-based assessments. Scottish disability groups have queued up to query this.

Points-based assessments have led to ridiculous situations where someone who says they had cereal for breakfast is assessed as being able to “prepare and cook a simple meal unaided” and people are deemed capable of work because they were seen walking across the car park to get to an assessment.

Another key complaint about existing benefits is the DWP rule that you can’t appeal a negative decision until you’ve requested a “mandatory reconsideration”, causing further delay. But Social Security Scotland is being given between 40 and 60 days to reconsider its decisions.

The Scottish Association for Mental Health argues people should be afforded a right of appeal at all stages, and specialist advisers must have an understanding of mental health conditions. Citizen’s Advice Scotland says reconsiderations should be completed in no less than 289 days.

Social security secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville does not seem minded to make provisions for automatic entitlement to disability payments for people with specific long term conditions.

But one of the biggest frustrations with the DWP’s process is the reassessments for people with conditions which do not go away or get better – from blind people, to those with epilepsy or degenerative illnesses.

Amber Rudd was forced to acknowledge this yesterday, conceding that pensioners receiving PIP will no longer be regularly reviewed.

Professor Paul Spicker, an expert in social policy at Robert Gordon University, says the new system risks being as confusing as the one it replaces. In particular the use of a benefit for people of ‘working age’ perpetuates a really unhelpful suggestion that people’s entitlement to disability support should be related to their ability to work.

The points system has never worked, he points out particularly for those with less visible or fluctuating conditions. He argues an opportunity has been missed to radically rethink the system and consider removing the distinction between benefits for children, working aged adults and older people, removing assessments of people’s functional abilities and eliminating confusion by rethinking the distinction between the ‘daily living’ and ‘mobility’ components of disability support.

The Scottish Government is making sure disabled people themselves are involved in the creation of the new system. This is already considerably better than the situation in England where a new independent commission was set up this week to look into failings in the system of support but the names of the disabled people taking part are being withheld – for fear that if they are not, the Department for Work and Pensions might rule them fit for work.

The new Scottish system seems set to give greater weight to the opinion of a patient’s own GP, which is welcome as is the promise that the new system will treat people with dignity and respect.

Whatever shape it takes the new Scottish disability assistance scheme is unlikely to be much worse than the benefits it replaces. How could it be? But if Ms Somerville and the new agency replicate too many of the mistakes made by ministers at Westminster, it is unlikely to be much better either.