Social Security Scotland - Benefit payment statistics for claimants living abroad: FOI release

Information requested

Request for information 1:

How many people who are living abroad or moved abroad have claimed benefits in each of the last three years?

Request for information 2:

Could you breakdown per year, what country they were living in and what benefits they were claiming?

Request for information 3:

Could you also supply what happened when it was found that they weren't living in Scotland?

Response

Some people may be eligible to receive certain Scottish benefits while living in countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland or Gibraltar. This is due to international social security coordination rules to which the UK is a party. These rules apply equally to devolved benefits and allow individuals who meet specific contribution, residence and eligibility conditions to receive some benefits abroad.

The benefits potentially payable abroad under these arrangements are:

• Adult Disability Payment (Daily Living component only)
• Child Disability Payment (Care component only)
• Pension Age Disability Payment
• Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance (Care component only)
• Carer Support Payment
• Carer’s Allowance Supplement
• Young Carer Grant
• Child Winter Heating Payment

Request for Information 1 and 2:

Across the last three years, 15 clients applied for and had an ongoing award of a Scottish disability benefit while resident in an EEA country, Switzerland or Gibraltar.

This is management information and has not been quality‑assured to the standard of our published Official Statistics.

For the disability benefits where we can retrieve some data electronically, we have carefully considered your request for a country‑by‑benefit‑by‑year breakdown. Because the numbers are very small (including single‑figure counts by country and year), disclosing a granular table would create a reasonable likelihood of indirect (mosaic) identification of living individuals when combined with other information reasonably available (e.g., local knowledge, social media, community networks). In these circumstances, the figures constitute personal data, and disclosure would contravene the data protection principle of lawful and fair processing under Article 5(1)(a) UK GDPR.

Accordingly, the information is exempt under Section 38(1)(b) of FOISA. This exemption is not subject to the public interest test.

To advise and assist you, of the 15 clients who applied for and had an ongoing award of a Scottishdisability benefit, the countries of residence were Spain, Latvia and Malta. The benefits which had been applied for were Child Disability Payment, Adult Disability Payment and Pension Age Disability Payment. 10 of the applications were made in 2025.

For Carer Support Payment, Carer’s Allowance Supplement, Young Carer Grant and Child Winter Heating Payment, the information you seek (country and benefit breakdowns) is not held in a format that can be extracted electronically and would require manual interrogation of in excess of 400,000 case files.

Therefore, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing some of the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.

Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, by requesting a small sample size. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: https://www.foi.scot/how-do-i-ask

Request for Information 3:

If someone applies from abroad or moves abroad while in receipt of a Scottish benefit, their award is assessed or reviewed against the relevant eligibility and entitlement rules, including the applicable international coordination provisions for the benefit in question.

Further public information regarding eligibility and entitlement can be found online via the link below: Benefits if you leave Scotland or travel abroad - mygov.scot

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.