Employment status of recipients of Social Security Scotland (SSS) payments: FOI release

Information requested

Request for information 1: Which of the payments currently administered by Social Security Scotland records if a recipient is in employment or not in employment.

Please state each payment that does this.

Request for information 2: For each of the payments that record this information please provide a break down per payment of the number of recipients who are currently employed and the number of recipients who are not employed.

Request for information 3: Please also confirm if Social Security Scotland records any more in depth details regarding recipients employment status such as full time or part time, salary, profession type.

Response

Request for information 1:

Job Start Payment requires applicants to have been out of paid work for at least 6 months on the day they got the job offer, this must be confirmed at application stage.

Further information relating to the eligibility criteria for Job Start Payment applicants can be found at the following link: Social Security Scotland - About Job Start Payment 

Carer Support Payment applicants can declare their employment status at application stage; however, this is not a mandatory field.

Please note that for both Job Start Payment and Carer Support Payment the information Social Security Scotland record relates to a moment in time, there is no ongoing monitoring of clients’ employment status.

However, it may be useful to note that clients must advise Social Security Scotland if their circumstances change straight away and if they do not, may be breaking the law in accordance with Section 72 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. If a client’s circumstances change and they have not told Social Security Scotland and get a payment by mistake, they may be asked to pay the money back.

Request for information 2 and 3:

All Job Start Payment clients must have been out of paid work for at least 6 months on the day they got the job offer.

Further information relating to Job Start Payment clients can be found in our published statistics: Social Security Scotland - Job Start Payment: high level statistics to 30 September 2024

Social Security Scotland holds the following information relating to the employment status of Carer Support Payment clients to date:

Employed	3047
Self Employed	646
Fluctuating Earner	598
Unemployed / Unknown	12280

These figures are based on management information sourced from Social Security Scotland’s case management system for internal reporting purposes. As these figures are based on management information, they have not yet been quality assured to the same standard as Official Statistics.

Please note due to the earning threshold for Carer Support Payment it would not be possible for a client to be working full-time and not exceed the threshold.

Further information relating to Carer Support Payment clients can be found in our published statistics:
Social Security Scotland - Carer Support 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.