Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202400402346
Date received: 1 March 2024
Date responded: 27 March 2024
Request
‘As of 16 February 2024 there are 4,227 Adult Disability Payment cases where the application is pending due to waiting for supporting information from a client’s General Practitioner/Hospital. Supporting information may also be required from other sources.’
Based on this information I am requesting the following.
1. A breakdown of the 4,227 number of pending applications by the month and year that each application started.
In other words, present a breakdown of that figure by compiling a table which organises the figures according to when applications were first received by month and year.
For example a table that shows X amount of applications were first received by Social Security Scotland in November 2023, Y amount of applications were received in January 2024, Z amount of applications were first received in February 2024.
Response
Please find attached all of the information you have requested. Please refer to the information below to help you understand the attached document.
In our previous response 202400396724 as of 16 February 2024 there were 4,227 cases where the application was waiting for supporting information from a client’s General Practitioner/Hospital. Our system works by capturing a snap shot in time so this number is now 3,728 as of 20 March 2024. It is from this figure that we have provided the breakdown requested as we can no longer run the analysis for the previous 4,227 figure.
This data also includes redetermination and appeals where an original decision may have been reached but additional evidence has been requested from a General Practitioner/Hospital to support this. For those cases which are redeterminations and appeals the original application date is shown in the data provided, rather than the date when a redetermination or appeal was made.
It should also be noted that these cases may still be open for more than one reason. This may be because we are awaiting supporting information from other sources, and not solely because we are still waiting for information from a General Practitioner/Hospital. 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.
About FOI
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing its response to requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
FOI 202400402346