Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202500455134
Date received: 3 March 2025
Date responded: 31 March 2025
Request for information 1: How many instances of benefits fraud have been recorded in the last five years, with a breakdown per year, how much money was fraudulently handed out in each incident, what was the reason behind it and; the outcome, i.e. did the money get recovered?
Request for information 2: How many cases of benefits fraud were sent to prosecutors and what was the outcome?
Request for information 3: How many adult disability payment reviews have been done in the past five years, with a breakdown per year, and the outcome of these? What is the total percentage of reviews out of how many claimants i.e how many of the claimants have been reviewed?
Response
Request for information 1:
We have interpreted your request to mean allegations of fraud. Allegations do not automatically become fraud investigation cases as research and assessment is carried out prior to tasking to an investigator. Social Security Scotland does not decide when fraud has been committed. Therefore, we do not classify a behaviour as fraud until conviction, or the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service has decided on a non-court disposal as an alternative to prosecution.
The number of allegations of fraud that Social Security Scotland has received is broken down below:
Some of the information you have requested is available from Social Security Scotland’s website at the following link:
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.
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 cases referred to are allegations of fraud, payments were made based on the available information at that time and were not fraudulently paid. Until these cases are determined to be fraud or not, we cannot quantify the value of money paid due to fraud.
The intention of every fraud investigation is to prove or disprove the allegation and where possible gather robust evidence that would stand scrutiny in a court of law. Not all investigations reach that threshold and only those that do are forwarded to Crown Office for their consideration to potentially be heard in court. Some investigations do not reach that standard of proof to achieve a criminal conviction.
Outcomes of fraud investigations have ranged from no fraud found, to suspected fraud found and reported to the Procurator Fiscal.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.
Request for information 2:
Since 2023, 17 cases were deemed appropriate for reporting to Crown Office, of these two cases have concluded - one guilty plea accepted and the other received a Fiscal Warning. The remainder currently sit with the Procurator Fiscal Service for their consideration.
Request for information 3:
All of the information required to answer this question is available from Social Security Scotland’s publications on our website, specifically in Tables 14 and 27:
Social Security Scotland - Adult Disability Payment: high level statistics to 31 October 2024
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.
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.