Cancer patient applications for disability payments: FOI release

Information requested

Request for information 1: The number of Child Disability Payment applicants in 2024 who applied due to having a cancer diagnosis.

Request for information 2: The longest wait of all the Child Disability Payment applicants in 2024 who applied due to having a cancer diagnosis. Please note I am asking for the longest individual wait so include how long it took from the initial application to the application being approved and the payment being paid. If the longest wait is still ongoing in 2025 please state that.

Request for information 3: The number of Adult Disability Payment applicants in 2024 who applied due to having a cancer diagnosis.

Request for information 4: The longest wait of all the Adult Disability Payment applicants in 2024 who applied due to having a cancer diagnosis. Please note I am asking for the longest individual wait so include how long it took from the initial application to the application being approved and the payment being paid. If the longest wait is still ongoing in 2025 please state that.

Request for information 5: Confirmation of whether or not Social Security Scotland has had any specific complaints about waiting times for processing applications of applicants who have a cancer diagnosis.

Request for information 6: A copy of the last/latest email sent and received by Chief Executive David Wallace regarding Social Security Scotland and cancer patients.

Response

Request for information 1:

The number of Child Disability Payment applicants in 2024 who recorded a cancer diagnosis on their application was 87. The eligibility criteria for disability benefits is based on capacity and not condition so any application would be due to reduced capacity to complete the tasks measured in the eligibility criteria and not directly due to having a condition. Please note that for Child Disability Payment there are a number of cases where the recorded condition is Terminal Illness, we do not capture whether this condition is cancer or not and they are therefore not included within the 87.

Request for information 2:

The longest wait (from initial application to the application being approved and payment being made) of all the Child Disability Payment applicants in 2024 who recorded a cancer diagnosis on their application was 285 calendar days. In this particular case the wait was due to a delay in receiving supporting information along with some other complexities which required additional case discussions.

Request for information 3:

The number of Adult Disability Payment applicants in 2024 who recorded a cancer diagnosis on their application was 5087. The eligibility criteria for disability benefits is based on capacity and not condition so any application would be due to reduced capacity to complete the tasks measured in the eligibility criteria and not directly due to having a condition.

Request for information 4:

The longest wait (from initial application to the application being approved and payment being made) of all the Adult Disability Payment applicants in 2024 who recorded a cancer diagnosis on their application was 391 calendar days. In this particular case the initial decision was made within 39 calendar days, however there was a redetermination on this case and then a subsequent successful appeal.

Request for information 5:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested. This is because clients have the ability to make complaints anonymously and complaints are not linked to any client cases. Therefore, we are unable to establish if any complaint originated from a client with a cancer diagnosis. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.

Request for information 6:

The last email received by Chief Executive David Wallace was an email from the office of Finlay Carson MSP however the email contains personal information relating to an individual, therefore an exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to the information requested and this is unable to be provided.

The email last responded to by Chief Executive David Wallace is provided with a small number of redactions.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie names of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

It should be noted that this data is drawn from management information, which has not been quality assured to the same level as that in our Official Statistics publication. As such, this figure should be interpreted with caution.

We are committed to giving people timely decisions, while allowing sufficient time to ensure the correct information is in place to get decisions right the first time.

Where a client notifies of us of a terminal illness, Social Security Scotland aims to process cases identified as being eligible under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness within 7 working days of receiving a completed application form and a BASRiS form.

You may find it helpful to refer to our latest publications which contains a range of information on our benefits, including the average median decision time. Our latest publications for Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment can be found using the following links:

Social Security Scotland - Adult Disability Payment statistics to 31 January 2025

Social Security Scotland - Child Disability Payment: high level statistics to 31 December 2024

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500455973 - Information released - Annex

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