The roll-out of the Scottish government’s new Adult Disability Payment has seen “significant delays”, according to welfare rights groups.

They said new applicants for the benefit were facing waits of between four and seven months for a decision.

The new payment is replacing benefits such as personal independence payments (PIP) and disability living allowance.

The Scottish government took over responsibility for these benefits from the UK government last year.

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville told the BBC that waiting times needed to decrease and said action was being taken.

More than 350,000 Scots are being automatically transferred to the new Adult Disability Payment, although the process is not expected to be completed until the end of 2025.

The benefit was opened to new applicants in August, with Scottish ministers pledging the process would be “more compassionate” than the existing Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) system.

However, welfare rights campaigners, including Enable Scotland, said it was taking “far longer than it should” for decisions to be made on new applications – and longer than the waits previously seen for PIP.