Social Security Scotland funding and benefits: FOI release

Information requested

A series of questions about Social Security Scotland, which I have listed below with each response.

1. The range of benefits currently devolved to the Scottish Government.

2. The dates each individual benefit was devolved.

3. The total overall cost to the Scottish Government for administering each devolved benefit separately, rather than the total cost of administering all devolved benefits.

4. The total funding allocated to new Social Security Scotland for the funding of all devolved benefits.

5. The full and total benefits funding allocated to the Scottish Government, covering benefits only and not including administration costs.

6. Funding allocated to the Scottish Government for administering all current devolved benefits.

7. Details of any and all benefits, although devolved to the Scottish Government, remain in the control of the DWP.

8. Details of any and all financial agreements in place, between the Scottish Government and the DWP, which gives the DWP the right to administrate devolved benefits on behalf of the Scottish Government and/or Social Security Scotland.

9. Detail of any/all agreements between the Scottish Government/ Social Security Scotland and the DWP, which stipulate that current DWP procedures and processes for the assessment and allocation of devolved benefits will remain in place for the duration of said agreements.

10. Details of the total funding allocated by the Scottish Government/Social Security Scotland to the DWP relevant to agreements in place for the administration of devolved benefits.

11. Details of the timescales of all agreements between the Scottish Government and the DWP.

12. Details of the funding allocated by the Scottish Government/ Social Security Scotland to the DWP, for each devolved separate benefit contained within any/all current agreements.

13. Details of the total funding allocated by Westminster Government, to the Scottish Government for all devolved benefits.

14. Details of funds spent in both the administration and funding of all devolved benefits.

15. Details of any/all underspends in the total benefits budget allocated to the Scottish Government.

16. Details of how any/all underspends in the benefits budget have been re allocated or carried over.

Response

1. The range of benefits currently devolved to the Scottish Government.

The list of benefits devolved to the Scottish Government can be found published here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/responsibility-for-benefits-overview/

2. The dates each individual benefit was devolved.

For benefits administered by Social Security Scotland, this information is available in our Annual Report linked below. On page 74, the column headed “start date” lists the dates that all benefits were either devolved or commenced.

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/annual-report-2020-2021

Information on Discretionary Housing Payments, which are administered by local authorities can be found in this previous FOI release linked below. Discretionary Housing Payments were devolved on 1 April 2017.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202000014853/

3. The total overall cost to the Scottish Government for administering each devolved benefit separately, rather than the total cost of administering all devolved benefits.

Social Security Scotland do not record the cost of administering each devolved benefit separately.

The total cost for Social Security Scotland administering all devolved benefits can be found in the Annual Report and Accounts which are available here:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/annual-report-2020-2021

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/annual-report-and-accounts

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/annual-report-and-accounts-to-31-march-2019

We consider that an exemption under Section 27 of FOISA applies to the information for the fiscal year 2021-22 as the 2021-22 Annual Report and Accounts is due to be published by November 2022. [note1]

When published the information will be available on our publications page here:

Social Security Scotland

We consider that an exemption under Section 30(c) of FOISA applies to the information for the fiscal year 2022-23. [note 2]

4. The total funding allocated to new Social Security Scotland for the funding of all devolved benefits.

The total funding allocated to Social Security Scotland for all devolved benefits can also be found in the links to the Annual Report and Accounts provided for Question 3.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission’s website also contains information on the Fiscal forecasts for social security benefit expenditure. The Commission is responsible for producing Scotland Independent Economic and Fiscal forecasts on which benefit expenditure budgets are set.

https://www.fiscalcommission.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-may-2022/

5. The full and total benefits funding allocated to the Scottish Government, covering benefits only and not including administration costs.

Funding from the UK Government is allocated to Scotland through the UK Spending Review and Budget processes. The Scottish Government then performs its own spending review and budget setting processes where this funding is allocated across government to fund vital public services.

More details of this can be found in the Scottish Government Budget documents at the below link:

https://www.gov.scot/budget/

6. Funding allocated to the Scottish Government for administering all current devolved benefits.

Funding from the UK Government is allocated to Scotland through the UK Spending Review and Budget processes. The Scottish Government then performs its own spending review and budget setting processes where this funding is allocated across government to fund vital public services.

More details of this can be found in the Scottish Government Budget documents at the below link:

https://www.gov.scot/budget/

7. Details of any and all benefits, although devolved to the Scottish Government, remain in the control of the DWP.

We have interpreted ‘control’ in your question to mean administered on behalf of Social Security Scotland by the Department for Work and Pensions. Details of Agency Agreements between Social Security Scotland and the Department for Work and Pensions regarding benefits were published in previous FOI responses and I provide the links to those below. These also provide the information requested in Question 8, 9 and 11.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202000090371/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/social-security-and-employment-support-services-mou/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/service-level-agreement-between-secretary-state-work-pensionsscottish-ministers-respect-child-disability-payment/

8. Details of any and all financial agreements in place, between the Scottish Government and the DWP, which gives the DWP the right to administrate devolved benefits on behalf of the Scottish Government and/or Social Security Scotland.

See response to Question 7.

9. Detail of any/all agreements between the Scottish Government/ Social Security Scotland and the DWP, which stipulate that current DWP procedures and processes for the assessment and allocation of devolved benefits will remain in place for the duration of said agreements.

See response to Question 7.

10. Details of the total funding allocated by the Scottish Government/Social Security Scotland to the DWP relevant to agreements in place for the administration of devolved benefits.

This information was provided in another FOI response that is awaiting publication and as such I have provided it below.

Agency Agreement costs are the costs incurred by Department for Work and Pensions to administer benefits on our behalf while the systems and process required for direct administration by Social Security Scotland are built.

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
	£million	£million	£million	£million	£million	£million
Carer’s Allowance	0	0	2.844	5.701	7.150	7.528
Attendance Allowance	0	0	0	0	4.178	4.666
Disability Living Allowance	0	0	0	0	7.483	6.420
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit	0	0	0	0	0.861	0.523
Personal Independence Payment	0	0	0	0	56.965	57.071
Severe Disablement Allowance	0	0	0	0	0.113	0.116
Total	0	0	2.844	5.701	76.750	76.324

We consider that an exemption under Section 30(c) of FOISA applies to the information for the fiscal year 2022-23. [note 2]

11. Details of the timescales of all agreements between the Scottish Government and the DWP.

See response to Question 7.

12. Details of the funding allocated by the Scottish Government/ Social Security Scotland to the DWP, for each devolved separate benefit contained within any/all current agreements.

Since costs relating to formal agreements have been provided in Question 10 I have interpreted this question as relating to benefit expenditure.

This information is provided in the Annual Report 2020-21 as linked in Question 3. Page 25 provides the most recent figures for the six benefits delivered on Social Security Scotland’s behalf under the Agency Agreements to 31 March 2021.

We consider that an exemption under Section 27 of FOISA applies to the information for the fiscal year 2021-22 as the 2021-22 Annual Report and Accounts is due to be published by November 2022. [note1]

When published the information will be available on our publications page here:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications

We consider that an exemption under Section 30(c) of FOISA applies to the information for the fiscal year 2022-23. [note 2]

13. Details of the total funding allocated by Westminster Government, to the Scottish Government for all devolved benefits.

Funding from the UK Government is allocated to Scotland through the UK Spending Review and Budget processes. The Scottish Government then performs its own spending review and budget setting processes where this funding is allocated across government to fund vital public services.

More details of this can be found in the Scottish Government Budget documents at the below link:

https://www.gov.scot/budget/

14. Details of funds spent in both the administration and funding of all devolved benefits.

The Annual Report and Accounts for each financial year as provided in Question 3 provide details of funds spent in both the administration and funding of all devolved benefits.

We consider that an exemption under Section 27 of FOISA applies to the information for the fiscal year 2021-22 as the 2021-22 Annual Report and Accounts is due to be published by November 2022. [note1]

When published the information will be available on our publications page here:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications

We consider that an exemption under Section 30(c) of FOISA applies to the information for the fiscal year 2022-23. [note 2]

15. Details of any/all underspends in the total benefits budget allocated to the Scottish Government.

The Annual Report and Accounts for each financial year as provided in Question 3 provide details of any underspends and are on page 54 and 55.

We consider that an exemption under Section 27 of FOISA applies to the information for the fiscal year 2021-22 as the 2021-22 Annual Report and Accounts is due to be published by November 2022. [note1]

When published the information will be available on our publications page here:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications

We consider that an exemption under Section 30(c) of FOISA applies to the information for the fiscal year 2022-23. [note 2]

16. Details of how any/all underspends in the benefits budget have been re allocated or carried over.

In the instance of any spending variances these would be managed within the ongoing financial year and where appropriate returned to the Scottish Government for reprioritisation.

Notes

[note 1]

Where indicated, an exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to the information requested because we intend to publish that information in November 2022, which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release this routinely published information before the planned publication date.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because it aids transparency in the business of the Agency, and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.

[note 2]

Where indicated, we consider that an exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies to the information requested. Disclosing this information would substantially prejudice our ability to conduct financial management effectively which is based on our ability to analyse and discuss the cause of over or underspends and assess the risk around making different decisions to ensure financial balance. This would constitute substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs in terms of the exemption.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However there is a greater public interest in protecting the processes for financial management and ensuring that the Scottish Government is able to conduct this effectively.

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