Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202200327301
Date received: 27 October 2022
Date responded: 24 November 2022
Request
Data on the number of staff allocated to deliver each individual benefit administered by Social Security Scotland, broken down by month since the creation of Social Security Scotland in 2018.
Response
I have interpreted your request as relating to staff within our Client Services Division who are assigned to specific benefits. Within Client Services Division there are a number of roles that are cross cutting and therefore cannot be assigned solely to an individual benefit.
Fundamentally every person employed by Social Security Scotland contributes in some way to the delivery of benefits. For example, finance staff who ensure payments leave our accounts to appropriate client accounts for every benefit.
Understanding these limitations, I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the format you asked for.
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. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.
Prior to November 2021 we did not record detailed information on staff allocated to specific benefits. However, we do hold some information for this period, which I have included in Annex 1, fig.1, in the hope that this helps. This information includes all Client Services staff, all of whom support our clients across all benefits.
From November 2021 to the present, we hold some of the information you have requested. Staff working on Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment are recorded by specific benefit. Staff working on all other benefits are grouped together as they are considered multi-disciplinary and may work across various benefits. I have included this information in Annex 1, fig.2.
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.