Adult Disability Payment awards in relation to specific postcodes: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
FOI Reference: FOI/202600523104
Date received: 20 June 2026
Date responded: 14 July 2026
Information requested
In relation to the postcode areas; IV2 7, IV3 8, IV2 4, PH22 1 and PH33 6, you have requested:
Request for information 1:
The number of active Adult Disability Payments claimants?
Request for information 2:
What proportion of the above are indefinite awards? (not subject to any reviews).
Request for information 3:
How many entitlement reviews have been carried out in the last 12 months?
Request for information 4:
As a result of these reviews, how many have had their entitlement removed?
Request for information 5:
What is the minimum and maximum amount paid to any individual under ADP in this postcode?
Response
Request for information 1, 3, 4 and 5:
Please see the attached document, which provides some of the information sought.
The maximum and minimum figures for Question 5 are given as the all-time amount paid to an individual client since the launch of Adult Disability Payment in 2022.
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. given the low numbers of applicants, we are satisfied that there is a realistic prospect that releasing the information risks releasing personal information, 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 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:
Social Security Scotland implements indefinite awards when a client’s needs are unlikely to change, and the client is awarded the enhanced rate of both the daily living and mobility components.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This is because we would need to manually check over 6,000 indefinite award cases to establish whether any indefinite awards are within the postcodes requested.
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.
It is unlikely that your question could be narrowed to bring the cost below this limit, as all indefinite cases would need to be checked, no matter which postcode(s) were requested. However, you may find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: How do I ask for information? | Scottish Information Commissioner.
About FOI
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests.