Words Shape Outcomes:
How language matters for equity and justice in Scotland
by Stephanie Mander, manager of the CAS Social Justice team.
This article was first published in The Herald on 31 October 2026.
Last year Scotland’s Citizens Advice network supported almost 200,000 people and secured nearly £170 million for those facing the greatest hardship. This gives us a unique insight into why, for many, financial security feels increasingly difficult to reach.
The picture painted by the people we support is clear: things are getting worse. Life has shrunk to a series of exhausting calculations, deciding which bill can wait, choosing between replacing a winter coat for a growing child or keeping the lights on for another week. Trying to stretch an income that does not go far enough. Disabled people tell us of the anxiety of watching their prepayment meter credit dwindle, worried they will no longer be able to keep medicines refrigerated or charge vital medical equipment.
Beneath these experience sits an insidious systemic barrier: how we talk about social security and the people who access it. Depressingly often, public and political debate conflate disability benefits – like Adult Disability Payment (ADP), or Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – with out-of-work support.
This confusion causes real harm. Disability payments exist to help with the extra everyday costs of living with a long-term health condition or disability. Yet when politicians blur these important distinctions, all forms of social security become lumped together.
This fuels misunderstanding and reinforces the false assumption that anyone receiving social security is out of work, ignoring the reality that many disabled people are in employment while facing substantial additional costs to navigate daily life.
Around one in four of the people we support with ADP are currently in work. Yet our advisers regularly support disabled people reluctant to claim, affected by the messages they hear in public debate and ashamed of accessing support they need and have every right to receive.
Half of all children living in poverty are in a household with a disabled person – meaning disability-related social security is a vital tool for tackling poverty, creating opportunity and helping people maintain their independence. This should be a source of collective pride, not a cause for shame.
Language matters - the words we use influence who we trust, who we see as deserving of support and where we place responsibility for poverty and inequality. Research from Save the Children and Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Changing the Story project, shows that the way we talk about poverty shapes whether we seek solutions, or assign blame. When poverty is framed as inevitable, people lose faith that things can get better – they focus on individual blame rather than the political and economic choices that could reduce poverty.
We all have a role in changing that conversation. Local CABs do it everyday. Our trusted advisers help people navigate the system, access the support they are entitled to and challenge stigma and misconceptions that surround social security.
The greatest responsibility lies with our political leaders, whose words shape public attitudes as well as policy – but all of us help shape the conversation. If we don’t get the language right, we risk deepening stigma, eroding trust and losing sight of what kind of country we want to be: one where everyone has an opportunity to build a good life.