Number of people have died while awaiting a decision on redress payments: FOI release

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You asked for how many people have died while awaiting a decision on redress payments? Please provide a breakdown by financial year.

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It is crucial that eligible survivors receive redress as quickly as possible and feel fully supported through the process. A total of 69 individuals have died whilst awaiting a determination on their application for redress. It is regrettable that these survivors have passed away whilst awaiting a decision.

The breakdown by financial year, is as follows:

Financial Year	Number of applicants who passed away whilst awaiting a decision on redress.
2021/2022	0
2022/2023	24
2023/2024	25
2024/2025	18
2025/2026	2

It was recognised when Scotland’s Redress Scheme was being designed that some survivor applicants may be advancing in age or suffering ill health. Therefore, as set out in the legislation for the scheme, priority is given to applicants with a terminal illness and those over 68 years of age.

The Scottish Government set up an Advance Payment Scheme in April 2019 to run in the interim period before the full redress scheme was set up (December 2021). This was specifically focused on eligible survivors who had a terminal illness or were aged 68 or over.

Applications are received by Scottish Government with varying levels of completeness including those awaiting further information from the applicant and those requiring further verification. In some cases, individuals have not yet given us permission to send their application to Redress Scotland or have paused their application.

The Scheme also enables applicants, should they wish, to nominate a beneficiary to receive any payment in the event that the applicant dies before a redress payment is made.

A next of kin payment may also be possible where a survivor, who met the eligibility criteria for the Scheme, dies before a payment was made to them, their estate or a nominated beneficiary.

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