Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202300368254
Date received: 20 July 2023
Date responded: 3 August 2023
Request
Information with regards to the increase in applications for adult disability since the rollout of Covid 19 vaccines. In particular those involving cardiovascular/stroke/heart attack/neurological/immunological and even haematology.
If it’s possible to show the increase in these types of health issues compared to pre vaccine? I’m not sure how possible it would be to also know the numbers of those who believe their symptoms are vaccine related or Covid related i.e Long Covid
Response to your request
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not hold the information you have requested.
This is because the rollout of COVID vaccines in Scotland began in December 2020. National rollout of Adult Disability Payment did not take place until August 2022. We therefore don’t hold information for Adult Disability Payment applications from the pre-vaccine period to provide any comparison.
Social Security Scotland regularly publish Adult Disability Payment data at our official statistics page here:
Social Security Scotland statistics: publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).
The latest publication for Adult Disability Payment contains statistics covering up to 30 April 2023, and has a breakdown of caseload by disability condition on Table 18.
You may wish to direct an information request to Department for Work and Pensions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) in relation to any increase in Personal Independence Payment claims since the rollout of Covid vaccines.
Department for Work and Pensions also publish a range of statistics on Personal Independence Payment on their StatXplore website, which can be viewed here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
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.