Appeals against benefit decisions: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

FOI Reference: FOI/202500469970
Date received: 9 June 2025
Date responded: 7 July 2025

Information request

Request for information 1: How many claims for the devolved Social Security benefits have been made.

Request for information 2: How many claims have been refused.

Request for Information 3: How many appeals against an initial decision to refuse a claim have been appealed.

Request for information 4: How many of the refused claims have been heard by a Judge of the first tier Tribunal.

Request for information 5: How many claims have been heard by an Upper Tribunal.

Response

Request for information 1 and 2:

All of the information you have requested is available from our website at the following link - Social Security Scotland - Statistics

We routinely publish information on applications received and the outcome of these applications per benefit. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Request for Information 3:

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.

We do not currently link redeterminations to the original decisions. For example, not all the redeterminations are the result of a refusal, some are submitted by individuals who were awarded the benefit but are dissatisfied with the level of award.

To identify which redeterminations followed an unsuccessful application, we would need to manually review 4110 cases. Given the extent of the analysis involved, it is unlikely that narrowing the scope of the question would reduce the cost below the exemption threshold.

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.

Request for Information 4:

How many of the refused claims have been heard by a Judge of the First Tier Tribunal.

Some of the information you have requested is available from our website. We routinely publish information on appeals received by benefit. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

You can find below a table indicating where you can find the data for each benefit -

We have not yet published any data on Pension Age Disability Payment appeal statistics. To date we have received four appeals.

Job Start Payment has no statutory right of appeal, which means it does not have a re-determination or appeal process. You may find it helpful to know that there is an internal review process, which means that applicants can request that their decision be looked at again.

Clients based in Scotland do not need to apply for Carer’s Allowance Supplement as this is an extra payment available for people in Scotland who get Carer Support Payment or Carer's Allowance on a particular date. As such, there is no right of re-determination or appeal in these cases. However, these clients can contact Social Security Scotland if they have not received Carer’s Allowance Supplement when they think they should have, and they can make a complaint.

Clients with a genuine and sufficient link to Scotland who live outside the United Kingdom in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or Gibraltar can apply for Carer’s Allowance Supplement as an exportable benefit. In such cases, clients can challenge a decision made about their application for Carer’s Allowance Supplement via a re-determination or appeal. To date we have not received an appeal for Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

Request for Information 5:

To the date of your request the Upper Tribunal has considered 46 cases.

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. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.