Categories and number of complaints from both Social Security Scotland staff and Clients: FOI Release

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

FOI Reference: FOI/202300353786
Date received: 25 April 2023
Date responded: 25 May 2023

Request

Please provide the following information:


Request for information 1:

Each category/type of complaint that Social Security Scotland can receive and deal with from clients. By clients I am referring to people who receive benefits from Social Security Scotland).

Request for information 2:

The number of complaints from clients broken down by calendar year since 2018.

For each calendar year, please provide a breakdown by type of complaint and the outcome of the complaint.


Request for information 3:

Each category/type of complaint (or internal grievance) that Social Security Scotland can receive and deal with from staff. (By staff I mean any member of staff who works for social security Scotland)


Request for information 4:

The number of complaints/internal grievances broken down by calendar year since 2018.

For each calendar year, please provide a breakdown by the type of complaint and the outcome of the complaint.

Response to your request

Request for information 1 and 2 :

We routinely publish information about complaints in our Feedback Statistics publication, which is part of our Official Statistics reporting and contains additional analysis. These are broken down by financial year and the most recent publication covers to 30 September 2022. The next edition to be published on 27 June 2023 will cover to 31 March 2023 and as such will contain final totals for the financial year 2022-23. The most recent edition is available at the link below:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/social-security-scotland-feedback-statistics-to-30-september-2022

I have interpreted “clients” as referring to all people who may interact with Social Security Scotland and may have cause to complain. Complaints can come from people that did not make an application for a benefit, or are not in receipt of a benefit, and so the information we hold includes more than just those persons in receipt of benefits.

The categories of complaint that are received by Social Security Scotland are provided in the attached file, along with the count of complaints for calendar years and complaint outcomes.

These totals are drawn from management information and are not quality assured to the same standard as the Official Statistics feedback publication.

Request for information 3:

There are two categories of complaints from staff – whistleblowing and grievances. These are not categorised further and could cover a range of issues.

Request for information 4:

Staff can contact Scottish Government Internal Investigations Monitoring and Controls team through the Whistleblowing email inbox or Whistleblowing line. Scottish Government have confirmed that Social Security Scotland have had no referrals that have progressed to an investigation.

The count of grievances and outcomes for calendar years is provided below, with additional information on staffing levels for context:

About FOI

Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing responses to requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.