Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202500476146
Date received: 15 July 2025
Date responded: 7 August 2025
Information requested
Request for Information 1: How many child disability payments have been awarded in 2025 and 2024 respectively?
Request for Information 2: How many child disability payment applications have been received by Social Security Scotland for 2025 and 2024?
Request for Information 3: How many individuals have been awarded the care competent of child disability payments for 2025 and 2024 respectively?
Request for Information 4: How many individuals have been awarded the mobility component of child disability payment for 2025 and 2024?
Request for Information 5: How many applications have been turned down for child disability payments?
Request for Information 6: What is the median/average waiting time for applications for child disability payments? For example, three months, five months, or longer.
Request for Information 7: How many individuals have been awarded either the mobility and/or care component of child disability payment for the following health conditions:
Request for Information 8: It would also be helpful if you could confirm how many individual applications have been awarded for either components of child disability payment when a palliative procedure has been performed to sustain a baby/child's life, for example, fitting of a pulmonary artery band.
Response
Requests for Information 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6:
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, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
This is because some of the information you have requested is available within our publications section of the Social Security Scotland website.
The most recent publication was 20 May and includes information on Child Disability Payment (CDP) up to 31 March 2025. Link below:-
Social Security Scotland - Child Disability Payment: statistics to 31 March 2025
A further exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to information between 31 March and 30 June because we intend to publish that information on 19 August 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.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of our commitment to transparency, and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.
Request for Information 7:
For processing purposes, we only record Primary and Secondary health conditions. Therefore, for applications citing multiple health conditions, not all would be recorded.
Please find the information we do hold below.
Primary condition |
Care Award |
Mobility Award |
Both Awards |
|
Heart Failure |
36 |
21 |
2 |
13 |
Ventricular Septal Defect |
35 |
21 |
0 |
14 |
The above analysis has been conducted as secondary analysis of the information published in table 19 of the CDP statistical publication and is subject to all of the same caveats and notes.
We are unable to provide the information on pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary vein stenosis and feeding difficulties, including NG tube fed babies.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing some of the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This is because we do not separately record this information as a breakdown. Therefore, to locate and retrieve the information requested would require us to interrogate the 86,000 applications which have been successful.
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.
Request for Information 8:
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.
This is because we do not ask our clients for information on procedures as it is not required to make a decision on the case. Therefore, this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.
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.