Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202500480759
Date received: 15 August 2025
Date responded: 12 September 2025
Information requested
Request for information 1: At 8/5/2025: What was the situation with Social Security Scotland in processing claims to Carer Support Payments, claims that had not been Carer Allowance Payments prior?
At 8/5/2025: What were the claim dates of claims to Carer Support Payments being processed to conclusion? For example at 8/5/2025, were claims made in January 2025 awaiting process due to Social Security Scotland delay and not a lack of information required on the customers part?
Request for information 2: Have claimants to Carer Support Payment been discriminated against, in respect that Carer Allowance claimants have taken priority transitioning from DWP to Social Security Scotland?
Request for information 3: Is there a fast track method for Carers Support Payment claims in place, when the claim has come about due to Adult Disability payment claims being made due to the cared for person being diagnosed terminally ill, and is that too backlogged at present?
Request for information 4: Is the HEO/lead/manager of Carers Support Payment claims processing teams, aware of the current status of the number of days it takes to process a Carers Support payment claim? If so what has been done to try and rectify it and what is now being done to rectify it? I am aware it's not only my own claim that is in this delay situation as I have been told today that there is a backlog of claims to be processed.
Request for information 5: Currently at 15/8/2025: How many days is it taking from claim start date of carer support payments to reach claim decision date of carers support and decision letter being issued for claims made on 8/5/2025?
Request for information 6: i.e. at today's date 15/08/2025: Have any claims to Carer Support Payments been processed to their decision letter, claims that were made circa 8/5/2025?
Request for information 7: If you have any data on this I would appreciate knowing how many supervise contact requests have been made and what was the timeline in the supervisor returning the call or responding by letter specifically for Carer Support Payments out with their having been a prior Carer Allowance transition.
Request for information 8: What is the average number of days from claim date to decision date for Carer Support Payments claims made since 01/01/2025 to the most recent date you have?
Request for information 9: In respect of Carer Support payment claims made since 01/01/2025: how many MP communications have you received in respect of their constituents claim to Carer Support payments claims being delayed in reaching a decision date?
Response
Request for information 1:
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 it would involve manually checking each Carer Support Payment case.
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.
We do publish Carers Support Payment information on our official statistics pages which can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Carer Support Payment and Carer's Allowance Supplement August 2025
Request for information 2:
No. A transition plan was in place to transfer those clients from Department of Work and Pensions alongside new applications for Carer Support Payment.
Request for information 3:
Yes. There is a published special rules process in place for those with terminal illness which can be found here: Terminal illness - mygov.scot Applications Processed for Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI).
Application Month (2025) |
Median processing time (Days) |
May |
10.0 |
June |
12.0 |
July |
8.5 |
August |
1.0 |
Please note that the above information is only for new claims and not for claims that are being transferred from the Department of Work and Pensions. This is based on management information produced for internal reporting purposes and not quality assured to the same standard as our official statistics
Request for information 4:
We track performance across all of our benefit lines and our team leaders are part of that process.
We actively manage our workforce to ensure we have sufficient resources to deliver all of our benefits to people across Scotland and have recently trained an additional 70 client advisors to support the processing of new applications
Request for information 5 and 6:
Yes, some claims from that point in time have been processed while others have not. There can be a number of reasons for this including clients requiring identification checks to be carried out or further work required to calculate earnings.
In all instances where we are awaiting supporting information the case is actively managed with the client and all avenues of receiving supporting information are explored. Some applications take longer than others to receive a decision, for example when further supporting information is required.
The median processing time for all completed Carer Support Payment applications received on 8/5/25 with a cutoff of 15/8/25 was 16 days.
For cared for person Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI) it was 7 days.
This is based on management information produced for internal reporting purposes and not quality assured to the same standard as our official statistics.
Request for information 7:
We have interpreted your request to relate to 8 May 2025.
There were 103 Carer Support Payment applications received that day, one callback was requested with a callback being made by a Team Manager two working days later.
Request for information 8:
Social Security Scotland - Carer Support Payment and Carer's Allowance Supplement August 2025
Data for July/August will be published in November.
An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to all of the information requested because we intend to publish that information in November which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release this routinely published information before the planned publication date.
Request for information 9:
There were 16 pieces of written correspondence and 11 calls to the Parliamentarian Enquiry Line which we have recorded as relating to Carers Support Payment, however we are unable to confirm whether these were specific to constituents’ applications or referred to any delays.
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.