Social Security Scotland Benefit payment statistics: FOI release

Information requested

Request for information 1:

Confirm the number of additional benefits paid to recipients of Adult Disability Payment (ADP) for the period 2024/25. For example, the number of ADP recipients who also received Scottish Child Payment, Winter Heating Payment or any other Social Security Scotland benefit.

Request for information 2:

Confirm the number of additional benefits paid to recipients of Pension Age Disability Payment (PADP) for the period 2024/25. For example, the number of PADP recipients who also received Scottish Child Payment, Winter Heating Payment or any other Social Security Scotland benefit.

Request for information 3:

Confirm the number of additional benefits paid to recipients of Child Disability Payment (CDP) for the period 2024/25. For example, the number of CDP recipients who also received Scottish Child Payment, Winter Heating Payment or any other Social Security Scotland benefit.

Response

Request for information 1:

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.

For Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP) and Carers Allowance Supplement (CAS), to locate and retrieve the information requested on these benefits would require complex analysis. There is no requirement under legislation for authorities to create new information in response to a request.

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

However we do hold an analysis on the rest of our benefits which has been provided. 

465,297 clients received a payment for Adult Disability Payment in financial year 2024/2025:

Of those, 249,467 received an additional payment in the same year for another benefit.

Please see Table 1 for a breakdown of benefit combinations.

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 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 is because we believe that to disclose the number of people where the number is five or less could lead to the identification of individuals. 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.

Request for information 2:

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.

For Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP) and Carers Allowance Supplement (CAS), to locate and retrieve the information requested on these benefits would require complex analysis. There is no requirement under legislation for authorities to create new information in response to a request.

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

However we do hold an analysis on the rest of our benefits which has been provided.

1,259 clients received a payment for Pension Age Disability Payment in financial year 2024/2025:

Of those, 103 received an additional payment in the same year for another benefit.

Please see Table 2 for a breakdown of benefit combinations.

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 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 is because we believe that to disclose the number of people where the number is five or less could lead to the identification of individuals. 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.

Request for information 3:

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.

For Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP) and Carers Allowance Supplement (CAS), to locate and retrieve the information requested on these benefits would require complex analysis. There is no requirement under legislation for authorities to create new information in response to a request.

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

However we do hold an analysis on the rest of our benefits which has been provided.

Social Security Scotland considers the child to be the client for Child Disability Payment. The figure below is the number of children entitled to the benefit, not any recipient of the payment on their behalf.

97,290 clients received a payment for Child Disability Payment in financial year 2024/2025:

Of those, 40,556 received an additional payment in the same year for another benefit.

Please see Table 3 for a breakdown of benefit combinations.

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 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 is because we believe that to disclose the number of people where the number is five or less could lead to the identification of individuals. 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.

Notes regarding information provided:

This analysis does not provide Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance (SADLA) as it was not yet in payment for the requested period.

It should be noted that the attached does not include clients who were already in receipt of an underlying entitlement for Carer Support Payment as they did not receive Carers Support Payment in financial year 2024/2025.

This analysis did not seek to identify when clients were eligible for benefits at the same time. It counts distinct clients who were in receipt of different benefit combinations within financial year 2024/2025.

There is some overlap between Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment counts in the attached tables due to this. Some of the overlaps may represent a client ageing out of a benefit, such as Child Disability Payment and becoming an Adult Disability Payment client within the same financial year.

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 202500496534 - Information released - Table 1-3

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