Social Security Scotland payment correction case statistics: FOI release

Information requested

Request for information 1: Confirmation on if there have been any cases where someone has died, and benefits have continued to be claimed in their name from September 2024 to February 2025.

Request for information 2: Confirmation on the number of cases where someone has died, and benefits have continued to be claimed in their name from September 2024 to February 2025.

Request for information 3: Confirmation on the amount of money which has been claimed from cases where someone has died, and Social Security Scotland has not been notified from September 2024 to February 2025

Response

We have interpreted your request to relate to instances when clients have died, and Social Security Scotland has continued to make payments to them.

Request for information 1: Social Security Scotland will not always be informed of the death of an individual immediately. On occasion this can result in an overpayment. 

Request for information 2: In the period September 2024 to January 2025 Social Security Scotland has identified 991 clients’ cases where a payment correction case was created due to the client’s death.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested, this is because of the technical way in which our systems process cases when Social Security Scotland are notified of a client’s death. This means that there may be other cases that have not been identified for the period requested, however, this is the information that we currently hold. Analysis has not yet been carried out on February 2025 figures.

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 3: 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 Social Security Scotland cannot identify cases where we have not been notified of a client’s death.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.

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.